The effect of chemical environment on K shell binding energy of Ag and Sn has been studied by using external bremsstrahlung (EB). The spectrum of transmitted EB, recorded with high resolution HPGe detector spectrometer, shows a sudden drop in intensity at K edge along with unwanted K beta(')(1) and K beta(')(2) characteristic X-ray photons of the target. A modified sigmoidal function has been used to determine the K edge of Ag, Sn and their compounds to understand the effect of crystal structure on K shell binding energy. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.