Determination of sodium oxide in alumina by fluorescent X-ray analysis

Abstract

From 0.11 to 0.98% of sodium oxide in alumina as raw material of aluminum was determined by fluorescent X-ray analysis with a standard error of 0.03%.
It was inevitable that only very feeble Na-Kα line was obtained by any standard set of fluorescent X-ray spectrometer, and a reason of this was attributed to a too low transmissivity of the window of the detector for Na-Kα line. A substitution of this by a 1 μ, polypropylene film multiplied sevenfold the measured intensity of Na-Kα line.
Statistical examinations were also carried out on the counting time, the method of counting, the statistical variation of results, etc.