Identification of arsenic in treated wood by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XFS) (CAT#: STEM-ST-0234-WXH)

Introduction

Wood may be pressure-treated with a variety of chemicals to protect it from rotting. One of the most popular wood preservatives has been CCA (chromated copper arsenate), which contains high levels of arsenic (2000–20000 mg/kg). Treated wood containing arsenic is of environmental concern because some chemical may migrate from treated wood into the surrounding soil and groundwater. Arsenic may also be dislodged from the treated wood surface upon contact with skin. The amounts of dislodged arsenic and potential impacts to the environment are a function of the amount of arsenic within the treated wood product. In these cases, quantification of the arsenic within the wood is necessary for evaluating impacts.

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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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