1 Scope
This International Standard specifies the procedure for screening soils and soil-like
materials for selected elements when handheld or portable energy-dispersive XRF spectrometers
are used. This quick method is assumed to be applied on-site to obtain qualitative
or semiquantitative data that assists decisions on further sampling strategy for assessing
soil quality. The higher the efforts for pretreatment used on soil samples, the better
the analytical results can be expected (see e.g. Reference [4] ).
This International Standard does not explicitly specify elements for which it is applicable,
since the applicability depends on the performance of the apparatus and the objective
of the screening. The elements which can be determined are limited by the performance
of the instruments used, the concentration of the element present in the soil, and
the requirements of the investigation (e.g. guideline value).
For Hg, Cd, Co, Mo, V and Sb, a majority of instruments are not sensitive enough to
reach sufficiently low limits of quantification (LOQ) to meet the requirements (limit
or threshold values) set in the ordinances of different countries. In this case, other
methods need to be employed to measure these low concentrations. Usually, wet chemical
methods are used, based on aqua regia extracts, in combination with optical or mass spectrometric (MS) methods like atomic
absorption spectrometry (AAS), inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry
(ICP–OES) or ICP–MS.