Análisis comparativo del porcentaje de óxidos en el cemento Portland, aplicando la normativa NTE INEN 160:2016 y la técnica de espectroscopia de fluorescencia de rayos X (XRF).

Abstract

The well-stablished NTE INEN 160:2016 standard for cement oxides chemical analysis procedures describes procedures that take seven days, and consumes an increased amount of reagents, while modern techniques could be used to optimize time. This study aimed to conduct a comparative analysis between the standard and x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) methods for the analysis of silicon dioxide, calcium oxide, magnesium oxide, sulfur trioxide, iron oxide, aluminum oxide, sodium oxide, potassium oxide, insoluble residue, and losses on ignition in a GU type cement sample from the ATENAS brand. The sample was homogenized and quartered down to smaller size before analysis. The standard gravimetric methods were used to analyze the sample, and the results were compared with those obtained using XRF. Using the standard methods, the following percentages were obtained: 21.64%, 2.80%, 52.38%, 2.39%, 0.06%, 0.84%, 1.03%, and 4.18% for SiO2, Fe2O3, CaO, SO3, MgO, Na2O, K2O, and Al2O3, the loss on ignition and insoluble residue were determined to be 4.38% and 10.42%, respectively, using only gravimetric methods. While the XRF yielded the following percentages for the same elements: 24.7%, 3.2%, 56.7%, 2.9%, 1.05%, 0.98%, 0.71%, and 5.26%. A statistical analysis using the ANOVA test revealed that there is a significant difference between the two applied methods. The X-ray fluorescence technique has an average standard deviation of 0.064, providing more precise values and being the optimal technique.