  The evolution of particle detectors dates back to the discovery of X-rays and
radioactivity in 1890s. In detector history, the Resistive Plate Chambers
(RPCs) are introduced in early 1980s. An RPC is a gaseous detector made up of
two parallel electrodes having high resistivity like that of glass and
bakelite. Currently several high energy physics experiments are using RPC-based
detector system due to robustness and simplicity of construction. In each and
every experiment, RPCs have to run continuously for several years. So, it
demands an in-depth characterization of the electrode materials. In the present
study, an elemental analysis of locally available glass and bakelite samples is
done using PIXE facility available at Panjab University Cyclotron, Chandigarh.
PIXE measurements are done using 2.7 MeV proton beam incident on the electrode
sample target. The constituent elements present in these electrode samples are
reported.
