Determination of beryllium by XRF

Beryllium has exceptional material properties, and because of this, it is an essential element used in the aerospace, computer, electronics, and nuclear industries. For X-rays, it has been widely used as a window material. Dr. B. Zawisza (Silesian University, Poland) has recently reported the determination of beryllium by X-rays. One would think that it is not easy to determine such an extremely light element by XRF. The novel simple idea is indirect determination of cobalt in the precipitates, [Co(NH₃)₆][Be₂(OH)₃(CO₃)₂(H₂O)₂]・3H₂O, fove rmed from hexamminecobalt(III) chloride and ammonium carbonate-EDTA solution. The detection limit of the proposed method is 0.2 mg of beryllium. For more information, see the paper, "Determination of Beryllium by Using X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry", B. Zawisza, Anal. Chem., 80, 1696 (2008).