EVALUATION OF COMPUTER DIRECTED OPTIMIZATION FOR ENERGY DISPERSIVE-X-RAY SPECTROMETRY

A simplex search algorithm is used to establish excitation conditions for multielement determination by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. Standard steel and aluminum samples were sent to eight laboratories to determine if the excitation conditions suggested by the automated algorithm are within the intuitive expectations of experienced X-ray spectrometrists. Comparison of spectral quality is facilitated by two new figures of merit. In most cases, the excitation conditions established by the proposed method are similar to those suggested by outside laboratories and, in several cases, superior quality spectra are obtained through the application of the simplex algorithm. © 1979, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.