Instrumental Determination of Trace Metals in Fly Ash by INAA and AAS Techniques and its Statistical Analysis

For low-level detection of elements in an environmental sample, a number of techniques is available. However, satisfactory evaluation of the results by comparing the techniques is difficult. An attempt has been made in this study to analyse fly ash samples collected from a major coal fired power plant by two different techniques, viz. INAA and AAS, to determine elemental concentrations. A statistical approach was formulated and the experimental data was subjected to Wilcoxon sign rank test, paired ‘t’-test and linear regression analysis. The results confirm the hypothesis that ‘no significant difference exists between the two techniques’.