Measurement of shift in K X-ray peak energies of potassium and calcium in different compounds using EDXRF

Nuclear Science Laboratories, Physics Department, Punjabi University, Patiala 147002, India

^a e-mail: rmsingla@yahoo.com

Received: 3 June 2014
Revised: 27 August 2014
Accepted: 14 October 2014
Published online: 5 December 2014

Abstract

Energy shifts in K X-ray peaks of potassium and calcium in different chemical compounds have been determined from their X-ray spectra recorded in an energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) set-up. The set-up comprises low-power X-ray tube photon source and Si(PIN) detector (AMPTEK model XR-100 CR). A statistical procedure has been followed to determine the shifts and t-test was applied to find the statistical significance of the results. The shifts were determined in potassium compounds; KCl, KBr, KI, K₂CO₃, K₂Cr₂O₇, K₂CrO₄, K₂SO₄, K₃Fe(CN)₆, K₄Fe(CN)₆, KHSO₄, KMnO₄ and KSCN with KNO₃ as reference and in calcium compounds; Ca(NO₃)₂ · 4H₂O, Ca(OH)₂, CaCl₂, CaCO₃, CaSO₃ and CaSO₄ · 2H₂O with CaO as reference and correlated with differences in electro-negativity, number of ligands, structural changes, type of bonding, axial distances, etc. in the compounds. The shifts in potassium compounds have been evaluated for the first time while the same for calcium compounds almost agree well with the earlier reported measurements in literature.