A rapid method for in-situ elemental composition analysis of metal-laden water would be indispensable for studying polluted water. Current analytical lab methods to determine water quality include flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS), atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS), electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (EAAS), and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectroscopy. However only two field methods, colorimetry and absorptiometry, exist for elemental analysis of water. Portable X-ray fluorescence (PXRF) spectrometry is an effective method for elemental analysis of soil, sediment, and other matrices. However, the accuracy of PXRF is known to be affected while scanning moisture-laden soil samples. This study sought to statistically establish PXRF’s predictive ability for various elements in water at different concentrations relative to inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). A total of 390 metal-laden water samples collected from leaching columns of mine tailings in South Africa were analyzed via PXRF and ICP-AES. The PXRF showed differential effectiveness in elemental quantification. For the collected water samples, the best relationships between ICP and PXRF elemental data were obtained for K and Cu (R²=0.92). However, when scanning ICP calibration solutions with elements in isolation, PXRF results indicated near perfect agreement; Ca, K, Fe, Cu and Pb produced an R² of 0.99 while Zn and Mn produced an R² of 1.00. The utilization of multiple PXRF (stacked) beams produced stronger correlation to ICP relative to the use of a single beam in isolation. The results of this study demonstrated the PXRF's ability to satisfactorily predict the composition of metal-laden water as reported by ICP for several elements. Additionally this study indicated the need for a “Water Mode” calibration for the PXRF and demonstrates the potential of PXRF for future study of polluted or contaminated waters.

一种快速的载有金属的元素原位成分分析的方法对于研究污染的水是必不可少的。当前用于确定水质的分析实验室方法包括火焰原子吸收光谱法（FAAS），原子吸收光谱法（AAS），电热原子吸收光谱法（EAAS）和电感耦合等离子体光谱（ICP）。但是，仅存在两种现场方法，即比色法和吸光法，用于水的元素分析。便携式X射线荧光（PXRF）光谱法是对土壤，沉积物和其他基质进行元素分析的有效方法。但是，已知在扫描含水量很大的土壤样品时会影响PXRF的准确性。这项研究试图统计确定相对于电感耦合等离子体原子发射光谱法（ICP-AES），PXRF对水中不同浓度的各种元素的预测能力。通过PXRF和ICP-AES分析了从南非矿山尾矿浸出柱中收集的总共390个含金属的水样品。PXRF在元素定量方面显示出不同的有效性。对于收集的水样品，获得了ICP和PXRF元素数据之间关于K和Cu（R² = 0.92）。但是，当使用隔离的元素扫描ICP校准溶液时，PXRF结果表明几乎完全吻合。Ca，K，Fe，Cu和Pb的R ²为0.99，而Zn和Mn的R ²为1.00。相对于单独使用单个光束，利用多个PXRF（堆叠）光束与ICP产生了更强的相关性。这项研究的结果表明，如ICP所报告的，PXRF能够令人满意地预测载有金属的水的成分，具有多种元素。此外，这项研究表明需要对PXRF进行“水模式”校准，并证明了PXRF在未来被污染或污染水域研究方面的潜力。