Anal. Chem. 1993, 65,3576-3580
3576
ARTICLES
X-ray Continuum Discrimination Technique for the Energy Dispersive Analysis of Fine Particles Laura E. Giblin,?William H. Blackburn,$and David M. Jenkins'?: Division of Safety and Health, New York State Department of Labor, 30 Wall Street, Binghamton, New York 13901, and Department of Geological Sciences and Environmental Studies, Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York 13902-6000
Discrimination criteria are proposed for selecting irregularly shaped and unpolished fine grains for quantitative analyses by energy dispersive X-ray (EDS) spectroscopy. The basic principle is that the energy distribution of the continuum or background radiation is a direct indication of the orientation of the particle surface at the point of analysis. Background spectra were collected from pure elements in various geometric configurations and orientations from which it was observed that the low-energy (
