The Simultaneous Determination of Thorium, Niobium, Lead, and Zinc by Photon-Induced X-ray Fluorescence of Lateritic Material

Abstract

A rapid method is presented for the simultaneous determinations of thorium, niobium, lead, and zinc in lateritic material from Cerro Impacto, Estado Bolívar, Venezuela. This technique uses a PDP—11/05 processor—based photon induced x-ray fluorescence system. The total variations of approximately 5% for concentrations of approximately 1 and 10% for concentrations of approximately 0.1% were obtained with only 500 s of fluorescent time. The values obtained by this method were in agreement with values measured by conventional flame atomic absorption spectroscopy for lead and zinc. The values for thorium measured were in agreement with the reported values for the reference materials supplied by NBL.