The major advantage of secondary-target X-ray fluorescence analysis is the enchancement of sensitivity and detection limit of an element or small group of elements with similiar atomic numbers by selecting a target material which produces X-rays slightly higher than the absorption edges of the analysis of interest. Secondary target excitation systems are, however, being employed for simultaneous determinations of a large range of elements. Thus, it was decided to compare the application of a simple secondary target X-ray fluorescence system with excitation from a Cd-109 annular radioisotope source.

A simple secondary target X-ray fluorescence system was constructed and optimized which operates at less than 800 kilowatts. The “relative” elemental sensitivities of this system. and a radioisotope system with a Cd-109 annular source were compared by the analysis of the 1-2-3-multi-spectral standard from Chemplex which contains 1.23% of 53 elements. The characteristic X-rays were collected with the same Si(Li) detector and analyzed with the same Apple lie microprocessor with a Nucleus ADC/interface card. Finally, the secondary target system described herein with a molybdenum X-ray tube and zirconium or cadmium target produced similiar elemental sensitivities as a Cd-109 annular source of about 7.5 mCi and 5.0 mCi intensity respectively.