Fast Analysis of Major and Minor Elements in Marine Sediments by Wavelength and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer

A total of 38 kinds of major, minor and trace elements in marine sediment were analyzed by a combination technique of wavelength dispersive and energy dispersion X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (WD-EDXRF). The sample was prepared by powder pressing, and the stream sediments, soil, rock and marine sediment certified reference materials (CRMs) were used to establish calibration curves. The light and trace elements with heavy overlapped spectral lines were analyzed by WDXRF, and the other major and minor elements that without heavy overlapped spectral lines were analyzed by EDXRF. The matrix effect was corrected by Alpha empirical coefficient method and scattered rays internal standard method. The spectral overlapping interference of elements was accurately deducted by multiple regression. With the proposed methodology, the detection limits of minor elements were mostly below 18 mu g/g, and those of light elements (Na , Mg) were lower than 15 mu g/g, which were suitable for element determination in most marine sediments. Precision of the proposed method was checked by analyzing the stream sediment CRMs (GBW07309), and the relative standard deviations (RSD , n = 10) of the determination results were lower than 9. 41% except for individual elements. The quality of the analytical procedure was demonstrated at a 95% confidence level, in which the estimated analytical uncertainties agreed with those from the RM's certificates of analysis. The WD-EDXRF method was applied to the determination of major and minor elements in different types of marine sediments collected from the Indian Ocean, and the relative error of some elements were less than 10%, between the values analyzed by ICP-OES, ICP-MS and WD-EDXRF. In a word, WD-EDXRF is a well-established analytical technique for multi-element determination in various sample types, especially for marine sediment, and it will be a new technical support to investigate the marine resource and ecology.