X- rays Spectroscopy Study of Impregnated Activated Carbon Used as Gas Adsorber for Chemical Warfare Agents in Military Mask

X-rays spectroscopy has been developed and applied in many areas. Activated carbon is well-known used for chemical filtration due to its excellent adsorbing properties and is the most important material used in the military respiration devices for chemical warfare agent protection. In this work, scanning electron microscope coupled with energy dispersive Xray spectrometer (SEM-EDS) and microbeam X-ray spectroscopy based on synchrotron radiation (SR $\mu$-XRF) have been carried out to characterize impregnated activated carbon samples that have been used as chemical warfare agent absorber for military protective mask. The elemental compositions and their distribution on the sample surfaces have been analyzed which showed the different profiles of several metals, including Cr, Fe, and Cu. They were also analyzed using X-rays spectroscopy with the first application of synchrotron radiation on the military equipment in Thailand. It can be concluded that the combination of SEM-EDS and SR $\mu$-XRF methods are very useful to accurately identify various activated carbon as fingerprint of different types of adsorber covering a wide range of materials from solely Fe in the World War II era to the mixtures of Cr, Cu, Fe and Ag at the present time.