A Technique for X-ray Fluorescence Analysis of Zinc–Aluminum–Magnesium Alloys

An X-ray fluorescence (XRF) technique has been developed for analysis of zinc–aluminum–magnesium alloys, which allows for determination of Mg, Al, Pb, Si, Mn, Fe, and Ni. The effect of the sample preparation method on the linear range of calibration plots for element determination has been assessed and conditions for XRF determination of the major alloying elements (Al and Mg) and impurities (Pb, Fe, Cu, Si, Mn, and Ni) have been studied. We have proposed that the matrix effect be corrected by choosing alpha-coefficients from X-ray intensity, followed by automatic conversion of the function to linear form. Calibration curves for determination of Mg (in the range 0.00019–5.04%), Al (0.0002–12.4%), Pb (0.0012–2.07%), Si (0.0005–0.12%), Cu (0.0006–5.95%), Mn (0.0004–0.00524%), Fe (0.0009–0.41%), and Ni (0.0009–0.27%) have been obtained using alloy standards and production samples, whose composition was determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. The adequacy of the proposed technique has been demonstrated by analysis of standard samples and evaluation of the analytical data with the use of Student’s t-test.