"Handbook of Practical X-ray Fluorescence Analysis" (B. Beckhoff, B. Kanngieber, N. Langhoff, R. Wedell and H. Wolf (Eds.), Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006, ISBN-10 3-540-28603-9)

The first impression one gets from looking at this book is that it is quite thick and looks heavy, and indeed, a wealth of information on modern XRF is densely packed into its 863 pages. In all, 69 scientists, mainly from Europe but also several from North America, South Africa and Japan have contributed articles on various aspects of the XRF technique; elements of XRF instruments, i.e., X-ray source (Chap. 2), optics (Chap. 3) and detector technologies (Chap. 4), as well as know-how regarding sample preparation (Chap. 6) and many applications (Chap.7 and others). One of the most impressive sections of this book is 'Quantitative Analysis' (Chap. 5) authored by M. Mantler, J. P. Willis, G. R. Lachance, B. A. R. Vrebos, K. E. Mauser, N. Kawahara, R. M. Rousseau and P. N. Brower. The chapter provides a good summary of each historically developed mathematical expression and discusses the issues related to errors and reliability, as well as standardization, which is significant in practical analysis. The intensity of XRF correlates to the concentration of the corresponding element, but also depends on the matrix, i.e., concentration of other elements. However, thanks to the well-established physical basis of XRF, calculations can explain measured XRF spectra to some extent. In modern practical analysis, the most likely difficulty to be encountered is in preparing so-called 'standard samples' that have the same matrix of the unknown sample to be analyzed. In such cases, one might wonder how one can depend on calculations, or which type of experimental data would help. Such problems are not new, but have yet to be fully resolved. They are also likely to assume even greater importance in the future. The book includes numerous stimulating applications in the area of micro area analysis with X-ray microbeams and ultra trace analysis using the total reflection condition (Chap. 7). The use of synchrotron radiation contributed to pushing those techniques to state-of-the art levels, and development of such techniques is still in progress. The book delves into XRF instrumentation and seems particularly strong in X-ray optics (Chap. 3). One can learn about the latest technological advances in great detail. Progress in this area correlates to the advent of new sources, like synchrotrons and micro-focus laboratory X-ray sources. Finally, in the last three pages, Chap. 8.2, there is a very useful list of sources and links, i.e., URLs, book names etc. In short, owing to its sheer practicality, every X-ray laboratory should have a copy of the handbook, or even two or three.