Curve-fitting regression: improving light element quantification with XRF

摘要

Light elements are hard to quantify by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry because, after a photoelectric excitation, they predominantly relax emitting Auger electrons, greatly reducing the fluorescence count thus limiting the signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) observed. Low SNR values have deleterious outcomes in model building. Notable in ordinary least squares (OLS) regression based on peak height, they also affect more robust regression methods, such as partial least squares regression. While low SNR can also be observed with low concentrations of heavier elements, this paper focuses on boron.