Elemental analysis by PIXE and other IBA techniques and their application to source fingerprinting of atmospheric fine particle pollution

The PIXE technique in conjunction with PIGME, PESA and RES has been used to routinely measure over 20 different elements present in fine particle atmospheric samples. PIXE provided data for selected elements from Al to U while the other techniques provided information on elements lighter than Al such as H, C, N, O, F and Na. Detection limits for the ion beam techniques on Teflon filter papers were typically between 0.02 and 0.2 mu g/cm(2) for a few minutes of accelerator running time. The multi-elemental capability of PIXE enabled us to use these 20 or so different elemental measurements to define fingerprints for various fine particle sources. These fingerprints included anthropogenic sources such as motor vehicles, industry and coal combustion as well as natural sources such as seaspray and soil.