Trace and toxic elements

Sources, Transport, and Fate of Trace and Toxic Elements in... 

Typical detection limits for various elements in a biological sample are shown in Figure 13.5. Typically, PIXE has sensitivity at the parts per million level for many elements. About 25% of the applications of PIXE are in biology and medicine. The light-element matrices lead to smaller continuous backgrounds, and many trace and toxic elements are easily detected by PIXE. (There are no holes in detection limits as there are in activation analysis as all the elements emit some X-rays.) Considerable attention has been and must be devoted to the preparation of thin, representative samples. Note that PIXE is only sensitive to the elemental composition of the sample and not to the isotopic composition. 

Choudhury, R.P. and Garg, A.N. (2007) Variation in essential, trace and toxic elemental contents in Murraya koenigii - a spice and medicinal herb from different Indian states. Food Chemistry 1 04(4), 1454-1463. 

Among other methods for determining trace and toxic elements in the soil, there are also electro-chemical analytical methods, mainly polarogra-phy and in the case of nuclear analytical methods, activation analysis and radionuclide X-ray fluorescence analysis are employed. Mass spectrometry, laser emission spectral microanalysis and other instrumental methods can also be used. 

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