Determination of base saturation percentage in agricultural soils by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XFS) (CAT#: STEM-ST-0238-WXH)

Introduction

Base saturation percentage (BSP) is an important soil chemical property that has implications both for soil taxonomic classification and soil fertility. BSP is defined as the sum of four basic cations (Ca, Mg, K, and Na) relative to total soil cation exchange capacity (CEC) at pH 7.0 or 8.2. Furthermore, BSP is a dynamic soil property affected by climatic, geochemical, and environmental conditions. Increases in BSP can elevate plant availability of Ca+2, Mg+2, and K+. Contrariwise, nutrient deficiencies, soil acidification, changes in soil biota, and general degradation of soil health are common consequences of low base saturation. As aforementioned, BSP is important in the characterization of soil types and their pedogenesis.

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Principle Applications Procedure Materials Notes Related Products

Principle

XRF describes the process where some high-energy radiation excites atoms by shooting out electrons from the innermost orbitals. When the atom relaxes, that is, when outer electrons fill inner shells, X-Ray fluorescence radiation is emitted.

Applications

XRF is widely used as a fast characterization tool in many analytical labs across the world, for applications as diverse as metallurgy, forensics, polymers, electronics, archaeology, environmental analysis, geology and mining.

Procedure

1. Primary X-rays knock out an electron from one of the orbitals surrounding the nucleus within an atom of the material.
2. A hole is produced in the orbital, resulting in a high energy, unstable configuration for the atom.
3. To restore equilibrium, an electron from a higher energy, outer orbital falls into the hole. Since this is a lower energy position, the excess energy is emitted in the form of fluorescent X-rays.
The energy difference between the expelled and replacement electrons is characteristic of the element atom in which the fluorescence process is occurring – thus, the energy of the emitted fluorescent X-ray is directly linked to a specific element being analyzed.

Materials

XRF spectrometer (including X-ray source, sample chamber, analysing crystal, detector and signal processing computer)

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