The influence of scattering processes in quantitative X-ray fluorescence analysis

Existing theory was used to develop a fundamental parameter (FP) computer program for quantitative X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry in which scattering interactions are taken into account. The program is suited for polychromatic radiation and composite samples and is used to estimate the errors that result from neglecting the scattering contributions in the analysis of samples in a low Z matrix when the spectrometer is calibrated either on pure elements or on standards similar to the samples.