Regional PIXE facility at Chandigarh (India) and Trace Element Analysis of Aerosol and Bio‐medical Samples Available to Purchase

A regional Proton induced X‐ray Emission (PIXE) facility is newly developed using 3 Mev Proton beam from Variable Energy Cyclotron, Panjab University, Chandigarh (India). A new target chamber has been designed to cater for Proton Induced Gamma Emission (PIGE) and Rutherford Back Scattering (RBS) along with PIXE measurements. The HPGe x‐ray detector, the Ge (Li) gamma‐ray detector and a silicon surface barrier (SSB) detector can be mounted simultaneously in the chamber for this purpose. A remotely controlled stepper motor is provided to move the target wheel holding 12/24 samples at a time. This facility is now routinely used for the detection of trace elements in the aerosol, medical and forensic science samples. The paper presents the analysis of Aerosol samples collected from highly polluted steel city of Mandi Govindgarh in Punjab state and relatively clean city of Jammu in Jammu & Kashmir region. The results from the analysis of these samples show some basic differences in the trace element profile of the two cities. The paper also describes the trace element analysis of fly ash in the vicinity of Ropar Thermal Power plant in Punjab. The scope of this study was to determine the concentration and composition of atmospheric particulate matter (PM) in the vicinity of coal‐fired thermal power plants in India. The data taken for the Bio‐medical samples are also discussed.