Application of the portable spectrometer XRF for the determination of content of some metals in soil: A case study from Holy Cross Mountains (Central Poland)

Abstract

The analysis of chemical composition using the portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (p-XRF) is recently rapidly developing instrumental research method. This method was applied to analyze the content of selected elements in soil samples from the Strużna region of the Holy Cross Mountains. The Olympus Delta Premium p-XRF spectrometer (4W Ta anode X ray tube, 40 kV, 200 μA current beam, “soil” mode, 135 seconds) was used. Prior to analyze the soil samples, the NIST 2710a and NIST 2711a reference standards were utilized in order to calibrate the p-XRF spectrometer. The maps showing obtained results of K, Ca, Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, As and Pb were constructed using the SURFER 7.0 software with kriging procedure. The obtained results show arithmetic means similar to the previously obtained using traditional methods of chemical analysis for the soils of Holy Cross Mountains. These results combined with the high accuracy of measurements obtained by using the p-XRF Olympus Delta X spectrometer proved this device to be the effective tool for environmental and geochemical studies.