The determination of sulphur in plant material by X‐ray fluorescence spectroscopy

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Abstract
X‐ray fluorescence spectroscopy is used for the determination of total sulphur in plant material.One calibration curve can be used for pasture, clover, apple leaf, rape plant top and wheat plant samples.The intensity of the sulphur Ka line radiation is measured on a pressed disc of sample backed with a phenol formaldehyde resin (“Excelite”) and this is related to a fused disc reference sample to give a ratio, x. A linear expression y = 1.0548x ‐ 0.0236 (r = 0.9810) relating x, the ratio, and y, the chemically determined sulphur content of the sample, is derived.The technique is rapid (2 min/sample reading time). The reproducibility of readings is less than 1.5% as a coefficient of variation, the standard error of prediction is ± 0.011% sulphur and the detection limit is 13 μg/g.