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 If a piece of information is incorrect, a link outdated, or the presentation choppy or unclear, the user can just click "Edit Page" at the bottom and then fix the mistake.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: Li battery shiny vs dull
Cool, that's a beast compared to mine. Max is 0.1 mA (100 microamp) here.It does have its own shielded housing, and I suspect the narrow measured beam cone angle is controlled by an mechanical iris
By
GEOelectronics@...
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#737
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Re: Li battery shiny vs dull
Geo,
My Kevex¡¯s are PXS4-613W and run with a CU015 60 kV power supply.
Target Voltage: 5.0 to 60.0 kV
Current: 0.01 to 1.00 mA
X-ray source spot size: 0.01¡± x 0.020¡± (0.25mm x 0.45 mm)
By
Dude
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#736
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Re: Li battery shiny vs dull
No biggie Dud, My figures indicated that the focal spot of the electron beam, whatever size it actually is, is approximately 1" from the outer edge of the brass collimator on the outer housing, and
By
GEOelectronics@...
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#734
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Re: Li battery shiny vs dull
Geo,
I have the specs here someplace but I don¡¯t remember exactly. 16 seems about right and the microfocus spot was very small as I remember.
I¡¯ll dig around and see f I can find the manual
By
Dude
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#733
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Re: Li battery shiny vs dull
The scans that I posted show only Cr Fe and Ni. Of course, I can't see Li
in any case.
By
Charles David Young
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#732
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Re: Li battery shiny vs dull
Those cheap batteries used to have a nice zinc case, carbon rod and a lot
of MnO2.
The manganese dioxide is a catalyst to decompose hydrogen peroxide into
water and O2, which reacts with calcium
By
Nick Andrews
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#731
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Re: Li battery shiny vs dull
That sounds logical Dud, hey on your Kevex stand alone tube, do you know the spot size and the cone angle? The one in my rig here in the counting room seems to have a 16 degree cone- does that sound
By
GEOelectronics@...
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#730
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Re: Li battery shiny vs dull
The anode is Li and the Cr has a high Li storage capacity. Did you see any V or Ti in that shot? They are sometimes used in the Cr coatings.
dud
Sent: Sunday, February 9, 2020 9:26 AM
To:
By
Dude
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#729
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Re: Li battery shiny vs dull
That is interesting, Dud. So why is that the case and why only the anode?
Charles
By
Charles David Young
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#728
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Re: Li battery shiny vs dull
A Cr coated anode gives the battery a better discharge capacity and is more stable during cycling.
Dud
Sent: Sunday, February 9, 2020 6:37 AM
To: [email protected]; Mike Loughlin
Subject: [XRF]
By
Dude
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#727
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Re: Trinitite
Hi Dave, yes I think so. That's not what I'm doing but just by coincidence the 32 keV from Cs-137 decay is still very evident. We can assume the 662 is there too, I'm just not looking that high.Now
By
GEOelectronics@...
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#726
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Re: Li battery shiny vs dull
PS, Charles and all, keep a dead dry cell flashlight battery (the cheap kind). Take it apart for elements for your collection, a few of which also make perfect XRF calibration sources.Geo
By
GEOelectronics@...
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#725
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Re: Li battery shiny vs dull
Interesting question, and I don't know. There very may be electro-chemical reasons, for example 316 stainless has a lot better sodium corrosion resistance than 304 ss.Just a wild guess but the
By
GEOelectronics@...
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#724
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Re: Li battery shiny vs dull
Probably just more Cr in the alloy used. Possibly for corrosion
resistance. Or the metal on that side is thicker, as it's the primary
casing of the unit.
charlesdavidyoung@...> wrote:
By
Nick Andrews
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#723
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Li battery shiny vs dull
Just for fun I tested both sides of a Li battery. One side (+) is shiny
and engraved and the other side is dull (-). After doing the shiny side
(red) for a couple of hours I started the dull side
By
Charles David Young
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#722
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Re: The case of the missing elements
Cool. Geo
By
GEOelectronics@...
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#721
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Re: The case of the missing elements
Geo,
Jaw crusher, 110v motor, weights about 200lbs on a stand. It sits in the mancave and its easier to bring rocks to it than it to rocks.
Dud
Sent: Saturday, February 8, 2020 9:16 AM
To:
By
Dude
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#720
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Re: The case of the missing elements
A Pellet press is commonly used for FTIR, LIBS and XRF. It¡¯s expensive to get set up though. I am just getting set up with a 12 ton press and the die¡¯s for my LIBS system. The problem is you
By
Dude
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#719
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Re: The case of the missing elements
Steve,
A XRF cup is 2.5 cm in dia and 2 cm deep. Its filled about halfway and a
cotton ball is placed in the back pressing the powder against the mylar
film. It uses about 10 to 15 grams or so to
By
Dude
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#718
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Re: Trinitite
Are you still able to get a meaningful spectrum from the trinitite *with
amateur probes*? It's over 70 years old.
I had a piece which was given to dad in the mid 50's. His boss collected
it shortly
By
W0LEV
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#717
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