A NEW PARTICLE SAMPLING TECHNIQUE FOR DIRECT ANALYSIS USING TOTAL-REFLECTION X-RAY-FLUORESCENCE SPECTROMETRY

An electrostatic precipitator (ESP) was developed in order to determine directly the trace elements of deposited particles by total-reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (TXRF). The performed and presented experiments demonstrate that the designed ESP is a useful tool for direct analysis of submicron particles by TXRF. The developed ESP is able to concentrate submicron particles homogeneously on a spot of the TXRF sample support. It is shown experimentally that the ESP collects 100% of the particles smaller than 1 mum at a flow rate of 1.3 l/min.