Background

Requirement of quick determination of elements in geological samples has been increasing for industries, environment and earth science. They are, for example, exploration of resource, operation of mining, discrimination of contaminated materials hazardous to environment and human health and characterization for geochemical profiling. Geological samples are generally composed of wide and various elements. Therefore, the analysis method for such unknown samples requires flexibility in addition to quickness. Semi-quantitative analysis in modern XRF instruments is a unique method which is performed without any reference materials used for the unknown sample analysis. SQX is Rigaku’s semi-quantitative analysis (standardless analysis) program to obtain concentrations by theoretical calculation using the fundamental parameter (FP) method and internal sensitivity library. The calculation is performed by using results of sequential scan measurement from boron or fluorine to uranium. The program is integrated with the theoretical overlapping correction function. Therefore, SQX analysis is highly optimized for screening analysis of unknown geological samples. This note demonstrates determination of the chemical composition in geological samples by using the semi-quantitative analysis method.