Publications Repository - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

Better quality control for alloy manufacturing and sorting of post-consumer scraps relies heavily on the accurate determination of their chemical composition. In recent decades, analytical tech-niques, such as X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), and spark optical emission spectroscopy (spark-OES), found widespread use in the metal industry, though only a few studies were published about the comparison of these techniques for commercially available alloys. Hence, we conducted a study on the evaluation of four analytical techniques (energy-dispersive XRF, wavelength-dispersive XRF, LIBS, and spark-OES) for the de-termination of metal sample composition. It focuses on the quantitative analysis of nine commer-cial alloys, representing the three most important alloy classes: copper, aluminum, and steel. First, spark-OES is proven to serve as a validation technique in the use of certified alloy reference sam-ples. Following an examination of the lateral homogeneity by XRF, the results of the techniques are compared, and reasons for deviations are discussed. Finally, a more general evaluation of each technique with its capabilities and limitations is given, taking operation-relevant parameters, such as measurement speed and calibration effort, into account. This study shall serve as a guide for the routine use of these methods in metal producing and recycling industries.