Chemical analysis of argon-oxygen decarburization slags in stainless steelmaking process by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry

A quantitative analysis method of fluorine in the slags produced in the stainless argon-oxygen decarburization (AOD) process by X-ray spectrometry was proposed employing direct analysis technique by pressed pellet. This research investigated the separate quantification of calcium fluoride and calcium oxide contained in AOD slags. X-ray diffraction measurement was performed to identify the stable phase of fluorine compound, which is primarily present in the slags. The synthetic standards prepared in laboratory were used to construct the X-ray fluorescence (XRF) calibration curves for F, Ca(t)O, SiO(2), MgO, Al(2)O(3) and Cr(2)O(3), considering the matrix effects and line overlap corrections (t:total). The calibration curves were tested by the quantitative analysis of synthetic standards with satisfactory precision and accuracy. The proposed method might be an alternative solution to the problem with the simple and routine chemical analyses of calcium fluoride in AOD slags of stainless steelmaking process by XRF spectrometry. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.