PIXE as a complement to trace metal analysis of sediments by ICP-OES

The adverse effects of metal contamination in sediments require methods that can quickly and accurately assess the extent of environmental pollution. Particle induced X-ray emission spectrometry (PIXE) is demonstrated to be a viable alternative to an established method, which consists of acid digestion and Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) to measure trace metals in sediment. The analysis of trace metal composition by both techniques on a NIST Standard Reference Material mud gives results that are consistent with the certified values for fourteen measured metals, seven of which are common to both methods. A comparison study conducted on a sediment core from a freshwater lake with a known chromium contamination in Muskegon County, MI also shows a good correlation between the methods for transition metals of environmental interest over a wide range of metal concentrations. Total sample preparation and analysis time for the PIXE measurements is roughly one third that of acid digestion and ICP-OES. Also, the acid digestion step does not elute all the metal, while the nondestructive PIXE approach is a total metals analysis method. However the PIXE method generally has higher limits of detection for many environmental metal contaminants. By combining the two techniques, the acid digestion elution factor can be quantified by running PIXE on an original sample and on the residue resulting from acid digestion.