Quantitative analysis of phosphorus and sulfur in vegetation samples at minor and trace levels by EDXRF technique

In this paper, a rapid, simple and reliable quantitative analysis method for Phosphorus and Sulfur in milligram quantities of plant samples by EDXRF has been described. The method uses a thin film sample preparation procedure which includes drying, suspension samples, filtration and pressing of the thin film samples. By measuring four random points of the same thin film sample, the homogenization of thin layer samples was evaluated to ensure the stability of the quantitative analysis results. The calibration curves of P, S, Ca and Fe was established by changing the weight of certified reference materials (CRMs) deposited on the filter. Then, the emission-transmission (E-T) method was used for correcting the matrix absorption effects of phosphorus and sulfur in the thin layer samples. After the correction, the correlation coefficients (R2) of the calibration curves of P and S were higher than 0.99. To evaluate the accuracy of quantitative analysis method, three vegetation verification samples were synthesized by adding the analytical pure powder to CRMs. The quantitative analytical results of EDXRF and ICP-OES were compared to the synthesized value. For P and S elements, the relative error of EDXRF and ICP-OES were 1.2%–6.4% and 4.2 %to 11.4%, respectively. •EDXRF technology is used to quantitative analyze the P and S element in vegetation samples at minor and trace amounts.•The Calibration curves of target elements (P, S, Ca, Fe) were obtained by changing the deposition on the filter.•The emission-transmission method is used to correct the result of quantitative analysis to P and S.•The measurement results and ICP-OES results have a good consistency.