Application of X-ray fluorescence spectrometry in multielement analysis of rubber samples

Elemental analysis of rubber samples is rather difficult, but XRF spectrometry offers some advantages relative to other more popular chemical instrumental techniques due to relatively simple sample preparation. For the excitation annular radionuclide photon sources of 55Fe and 109Cd were used. The analyses of metal content in samples of natural latex have been performed in order to investigate the relation between the low specific resistivity of the latex and the respective metal content. The results are presented and discussed.