Improvement of accuracy in quantitative TXRF analysis of soil sample by applying external standard method

TXRF is a powerful technique for the soil sample analysis due to its ability to conduct quantitative analysis of powder sample without complicated pre-treatment processes. The conventional internal standard method used for this technique suffers from relatively low accuracy because of varying matrix effects of soil. In order to improve the accuracy, external standard method was applied to analyze two types of soil samples; acid-dissolutionized soil solution and detergent-suspended soil powder. Individual ICP-AES/MS grade standards were mixed, diluted and measured to create standard curves, but applying these curves for analyzing the soil solution sample did not make any improvement in comparison with the internal standard method. On the other hand, standard curves were created with using standard soil powders for the analysis of soil powder samples, and we found that this method increased the accuracy significantly relative to the internal standard method. Especially, Al, Fe, K, Ca, Ti, Ba, Mn, Sr, Rb, Cu was measured with relatively high accuracy (relative error = +/- 20 %).