A micro co-precipitation technique for use in X-ray fluorescence analysis.

An apparatus and a procedure are described for the preconcentration of nanogram amounts of trace elements. Co-precipitation and pressure filtration confine the precipitate to a 1.27 mm diameter spot on a filter membrane. Trace elements in the 10-100 ng range are collected reproducibly and detected with high sensitivity by X-ray fluorescence, by use of a milliprobe instrument. Advantages of the technique for quantitative applications are discussed.