XRF Analysis of Low Level Cation Concentration of Sodium Silicate Solutions

Sodium silicate solutions have been manufactured commercially for over one hundred years. Such solutions have been used in the past as major constituents in waxes, polishes and adhesives, and in detergents. A current additional use is their application in enhanced oil recovery. In many uses of sodium silicate solutions trace metal levels adversely effect performance. Depending on the source of the raw materials used in the silicate production and on processing conditions iron and vanadium in particular may be found at the 50-200 ppm level. X-ray fluorescence is used as a rapid method for analysis of iron in sand, one of the raw materials used in silicate manufacture. In order to use an instrument already at the plant site, we decided to develop an XRF method for metals analysis in the silicate solutions as well.