Abstract
A fundamental study for application of X-ray diffractometer on industrial analysis was made using brass as the sample, in which the alloy was converted into a mixture having a definite composition by a preliminary chemical treatment and this was subjected to the X-ray diffractometric analysis.
The brass was dissolved in nitric acid and the resulted nitrate was decomposed by heating at 500°C. The complete conversion of copper and zinc into their oxides was achieved by successive 30 min. heating at 900°C.
An accurate determination of copper within ±2% error was possible by subjecting the oxide (ground for 30 min. in an agate mortar) to the X-ray diffractometry. The area of diffraction peak (height × half value width) was taken as the index of diffraction line intensity.
The values obtained by the proposed method on a standard sample of brass agreed well with those by chemical analysis.
