Challenges for INAA in studies of materials from advanced material research including rare earth concentrates and carbon based ceramics

Rare-earth elements are increasingly applied in advanced materials to be used, e.g., in electronic industry, automobile catalysts, or lamps and optical devices. Trace element analysis of these materials might be an interesting niche for NAA because of the intrinsic high accuracy of this technique, and the shortage of matrix matching reference materials with other methods for elemental analysis. The carbon composite materials from another category of advanced materials, where sometimes a very high degree of purity is required. Also for these materials, NAA has favorable characteristics. Examples are given of the use of NAA in the analysis of both categories of materials. (Examples include carbon-carbon composites and silicon carbide.)