With the ultimate objective in contributing to the improvement of the quality control of drinking water and to facilitate the checking of its compliance with the respective regulations, an inventory ...of analytical techniques used in water supply companies in Eastern and Western European countries is presented. The existing regulations for drinking water and bottled mineral water quality with respect to trace elements in these countries are compared to regulations of the World Health Organisation. The data obtained can be useful for further harmonisation of the respective regulations in Europe.
The performance has been compared of two different quantification methods — namely, the commonly used empirical quantification procedure and a fundamental parameter approach — for determination of ...the mass fractions of elements in particulate-like sample residues on a quartz reflector measured in the total reflection geometry. In the empirical quantification procedure, the spectrometer system needs to be calibrated with the use of samples containing known concentrations of the elements. On the basis of intensities of the X-ray peaks and the known concentration or mass fraction of an internal standard element, by using relative sensitivities of the spectrometer system the concentrations or mass fractions of the elements are calculated. The fundamental parameter approach does not require any calibration of the spectrometer system to be carried out. However, in order to account for an unknown mass per unit area of a sample and sample nonuniformity, an internal standard element is added. The concentrations/mass fractions of the elements to be determined are calculated during fitting a modelled X-ray spectrum to the measured one. The two quantification methods were applied to determine the mass fractions of elements in the cross-sections of a peat core, biological standard reference materials and to determine the concentrations of elements in samples prepared from an aqueous multi-element standard solution.
Ombrotrophic peat bogs form an independent ecosystem fed by atmospheric precipitation. There is a correlation between depth and time, thus sections of peat taken from various depths can indicate the ...deposition of several elements from both natural and anthropogenic sources. A peat core of 40 cm in length was taken from a peat bog in southern Poland and cut into 2-cm sections. The peat core was dated using the natural radionuclide
210Pb. Additionally, pollen analysis was performed in order to corroborate the
210Pb dating. Eighteen elements and the ash content have been determined in all peat sections. Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence analysis (EDXRF) was applied in this work for simultaneous elemental analysis. The concentration depth profiles for the determined elements and ash content profile were constructed. The results show strong time-dependent variations in the concentrations of the different elements. An interpretation of the data is given and correlation between possible influencing factors is discussed. High concentrations of Pb and Zn indicate their anthropogenic origin.
Total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and chemical pre-concentration procedures have been applied for the analysis of trace concentrations of copper, mercury, and lead in drinking water ...samples. A simple total reflection module has been used in X-ray measurements. The elements under investigation were pre-concentrated by complexation using a mixture of carbamates followed by solvent extraction with methyl isobutyl ketone. The preconcentration procedure was tested with the use of twice-distilled water samples and samples of mineral and tap water spiked with known additions of copper, mercury, and lead. The obtained recovery and precision values are presented. The minimum detection limits for the determination of these elements in mineral and tap water samples were found to be 40 ng l
−1, 60 ng l
−1, and 60 ng l
−1, respectively.
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