On the use of relative deceleration values for the determination of magnesium by PIGE

By spiking the sample and analyte standard with a compound containing a common non-analyte element, to which a relative deceleration property for 5 MeV protons has been ascribed, relative deceleration values for these target materials could be obtained by PIGE. These values are used to correct for matrix effects in elemental analysis using PIGE techniques. Following this approach, the determination of magnesium in the reference standards BSC 308, Cr XXXI, SARM 8 and SARM 9 was investigated by measuring the yield of the 390 keV²⁵Mg p(2,1) and 585 keV²⁵Mg p(1,0) -rays. Lithium carbonate was employed as the non-analyte spike and magnesium oxide as the analyte comparator.