Effects of Contamination on Sample Surface to the Quantitative Analysis by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was applied to the study of the effect of contamination of organic carbon on the surface of the sample to the accuracy of quantitative analysis for its componential elements.As shown by the experimental results,that the presence of carbon contaminants on the sample surface led to negative deviation of relative quantitative-analytical results for elements with relatively low photoelectron kinetic energy,and that larger the difference between the values of photoelectron kinetic energy of two different elements,the greater will be the relative deviation of the results.Hence,the contamination of sample surface is one of the possible sources of errors of XPS analysis,especially in using the method of elemental sensitivity factors,and this should not be overlooked anyhow.