Effect of technological characteristics of powder material on the fluorescence intensity of elemental analytical lines

The effect of technological and physical–mechanical characteristics of powder irradiators on the fluorescence intensity of elemental analytical lines was studied experimentally. Investigations were conducted with the use of ferroalloy powders of different grain size, in bulk and pelleted form, at various loads. A dependence of elemental analytical line intensity on the density of powders, both in bulk and pelleted at constant pressure, that was defined by the variation in particle size and surface interaction forces was found. Calculations revealed a correlation between the dependences obtained and the variation of the effective absorption characteristics of irradiators due to different concentrations of the solid irradiation phase, caused by the variations in density and autoadhesive properties of the particles. Variations in pelleting pressure led to similar dependences at other densities of the particle packing, the roughness of the irradiators not exceeding several microns and having a considerable effect on the formation of the irradiation layer. The parameters were found that have the greatest effect on the fluorescence intensity of powder materials. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.