XRF Wiki
Welcome to the XRF Wiki. This Wiki is a repository of information contributed by members of [email protected]. Members can view and edit the pages. The pages are currently not viewable by the public. The pages below represent a rough overview of the technology and techniques associated with X-Ray Florescence Spectroscopy as well as serving as a place for members to organize the spectra that they have contributed to the forum.?
As a starting point, the pages will be populated by information taken from member posts from the past few years - with references/attribution. Perhaps in time, these pages can be edited by members to make them more complete and less choppy. Members can also edit this page, making the structure of the content more organized.?
Pages can contain information about a particular topic, links to relevant resources (such as manuals, research papers, etc.), links to relevant forum discussions on the topic, book titles, or anything that might be useful.
What follows is very much a work in progress.
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Adding to the Wiki
For those unfamiliar with the Wiki phenomenon, it is basically a user editable encyclopedia. The idea is that there are pages with different articles, which the user can read and also choose to edit if desired. If a piece of information is incorrect, a link outdated, or the presentation choppy or unclear, the user can just click "Edit Page" at the bottom and then fix the mistake. There is also a "Page History," so if you a user were to make a mistake or maliciously destroy a page (which wouldn't happen here) an editor can come along and restore the page to a previous version.?
If you have used MediaWiki (the engine that runs behind the scene of Wikipedia.org) you will be familiar with a certain style of creating an article. There are tags that one uses to change the formatting of the parts of the article. The Wiki on Groups.io uses a different background engine and so the standard MediaWiki syntax does not apply here. Rather, the page is edited using the same tools as one would use to compose a message on the forums. If you are a programmer or someone who likes using the tagged syntax directly, you can access the underlying page source code, be activating the advanced editing toolbar (the icon with three lines on the far right of the basic toolbar) and then clicking on the source code icon <> on the far right of the Advance Editing Toolbar. You will immediately notice that the underlying source code is HTML. Most things can be done just by using the various icons, but advanced features like table can only be implemented by manually writing the source code. (Although there are website available that will generate the source code for you through a graphical interface.)
Here are some useful resources from Groups.io:?
Wiki Guide for Users and Editors
Message Composition Tips and Tricks
Overview of XRF
X-Ray Florescence vs. X-Ray Diffraction
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Hardware
This section describes the hardware used for XRF. We will describe the basic theory of operation of each stage in the processing tool chain and then present different commercial systems that are available as these systems are often integrated together.
[Editor note: General theory needs to be in an independent page separate from specific manufacturer information.
[Editor note - question: Should this be arranged by category, e.g detectors, preamps, etc or by manufacturer with the manufacturers product line on one page. Perhaps it's best to put a list of products with theory but the details of the products on a manufacture page...]
Detectors?- what's available, theory of operation, tradeoffs
Detector Cooling?- keeping detectors cool to avoid thermal noise and keeping the TEC from overheating
Preamps?- theory of operation, brief summary of what out there (and what not to do - such as trying to use a PMT preamp for a SiPIN diode...)
Pulse Processing Theory - high level overview of the stages of going from detector pulse to channel peaks on the computer
Commercial Systems - many commercial systems are integrated so it seems to make sense to present, for example all Amptek products together. [question: are their other affordable integrated systems besides Amptek?]
Amptek XRF System
Activation Sources - what do you use to make the sample fluoresce (that's within the amateur budget and doesn't require special licensing)
Software
- Device Control Software - what do you use to collect the data from the detector system
- XRF Analysis Software - what do you use to analyze the data, especially for quantitative measurements (composition percentages, thin film measurement)
- Free Software Tools
Note: there may be software packages that possess some or all of these characteristics.
Materials Spectra
Metals Spectra
Historic/Archeological Spectra
Reference Materials Spectra
Household Objects Spectra
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Resources
Videos
Articles
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Non-XRF Techniques
Gamma Spectroscopy
Raman Spectroscopy
FTIR - Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy
Atomic Emission Spectroscopy
Inductively Coupled Atomic Emission Spectroscopy
Spark Emission Spectroscopy
Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy
LIBS - Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy
Photoacoustic Spectroscopy
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Re: Trinitite
Red Trinitite. Some have said the red color in some Trinitite is there because it was stored in metal drums which rusted, then transferred the rust to the Trinitite. Others claim it is copper, from
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GEOelectronics@...
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#712
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Trinitite
Analyzing Trinitite with different methods.
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GEOelectronics@...
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#711
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Re: The case of the missing elements
"I use a Rock crusher for big rock samples" Pics? Manual? Portable (trailer hitch mount)?Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#710
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Re: The case of the missing elements
"How would you prepare a sample like that? Taking a piece off with a Dremel or even a cheese grater might introduce contamination. Do you know how labs do it, and can we do this in the home lab? I
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GEOelectronics@...
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#709
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Re: The case of the missing elements
Dud, of course you are correct. And that technology is not out of reach of the serious amateur. However, here, just like amateur radio, we are all amateurs, and will evolve to different levels of
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GEOelectronics@...
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#708
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Re: The case of the missing elements
How many grams of material for an adequate sample? ________________________________ Sent: Friday, February 7, 2020 10:36 PM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [XRF] The case of the missing
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WILLIAM S Dubyk
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#707
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Re: The case of the missing elements
I use a Rock crusher for big rock samples. Most are just done in using a cloth covered hammer and then a ceramic mortar and pestle then sieving the powder down to a uniform and appropriate size. Yeah,
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Dude
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#706
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Re: The case of the missing elements
Powdering a specimen is a common and practical way of getting a uniform xrf, but like you mentioned Dud, us collectors do cringe at that especially if it is unusual, expensive, and/or hard to replace.
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WILLIAM S Dubyk
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#705
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Re: The case of the missing elements
Good points here Geo. However we¡¯re all doing this all wrong and comparing apples to oranges. The excitation sources have widely different energies and source strength and exposure is from within or
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Dude
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#704
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Re: Mystery wire
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GEOelectronics@...
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#703
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Re: The case of the missing elements
Great, yeah I hang there too when we drive through. Last trip was the day they installed the new mass spectrometer, I was really eyeing the old one for possibilities, but sanity prevailed.Now I can
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GEOelectronics@...
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#702
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Re: Mystery wire
A Si Pin and a SDD aren¡¯t that much different. Did you run it on a Si-Pin or the Cd-Te detector? Dud Sent: Friday, February 7, 2020 2:07 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [XRF] Mystery wire Thanks
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Dude
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#701
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Re: Mystery wire
bare wire, plastic clip holder. Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#700
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Re: The case of the missing elements
Charles, I would suggest starting with some lower to intermediate rad minerals with simple formulas, like columbite, monazite, and even zircon. Run both internal and external tests on each. Zircon
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WILLIAM S Dubyk
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#699
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Re: The case of the missing elements
Yes it is in Northrup Hall, no I just hang out there, know some folks and make a nuisance of myself. I saw Jim last October at the mineral show, he has a booth there, we yacked it up for a while. I am
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WILLIAM S Dubyk
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#698
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Re: Mystery wire
Ken, Yes, the insulation was left on the wire. The low energy response is mostly noise although one could possibly conjure up a Cl peak if one was reckless enough in the interp. The high percentage is
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Dude
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#697
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Re: The case of the missing elements
Dud pointed out that I had a wrong filename so I have attached the files again with the corrections. I like George's explanation for why Fe and Y are not showing up with internal radiation. These
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Charles David Young
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#696
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Re: The case of the missing elements
Cool on the U of NM, is it in the same building as the cyclotron and meteor museum?Do you work there or is it a club? Do you see Jim Hill anymore? Haven't heard from him since our last trip to
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GEOelectronics@...
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#695
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Re: The case of the missing elements
No it's all university level microprobe stuff from the local Institute of Meteoritics at UNM, nothing I can afford or have room for or even know how to use. The concept of using both the internal and
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WILLIAM S Dubyk
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#694
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Re: The case of the missing elements
That's a great representation of the inclusions Steve. Is the X-Ray mapping done with electrons on an SEM or some other? Looks really cool. Also the photomicrographs. Do you have your own inverted
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GEOelectronics@...
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#693
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