Overcoming peak overlaps in titanium- and vanadium-bearing materials with multiple linear least squares fitting

Published

March 10, 2017

Author(s)

Michael Mengason, Nicholas Ritchie

Abstract

Quantitative microanalysis by energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) of materials with titanium to vanadium ratios ranging from 1:1 to greater than 30:1 is demonstrated to be effective using multiple linear least squares fitting with NIST DTSA II despite a significant overlap of the characteristic X-ray peaks among these and other elements. Standards based quantitative EDS (SB-quant-EDS) is evaluated on NIST research glasses with overlaps of Ti on V and Ba on both Ti and V with results within two relative percent of expected values for vanadium. The fully quantitative analysis of oxide minerals by SB-quant-EDS is demonstrated for examples of solid solutions within the spinel and ilmenite groups. Comparison with wavelength dispersive spectrometry (WDS) for typical analytical conditions and those used for trace-element analysis yielded comparable values and demonstrates that SB-quant-EDS is a viable alternative technique to WDS analysis for materials with difficult overlaps and further that the two techniques complement each other.

Citation

Microscopy and Microanalysis

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

EDS, Quantitative, Peak overlap, Titanium, Vanadium, Spinel, Ilmenite

Citation

Mengason, M. and Ritchie, N. (2017), Overcoming peak overlaps in titanium- and vanadium-bearing materials with multiple linear least squares fitting, Microscopy and Microanalysis, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=921408 (Accessed October 10, 2025)