Issue 11, 2022

Rapid recognition and quantitative analysis of niobium minerals by scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy

Abstract

The rapid recognition and quantitation of niobium-rich minerals is crucial for the study on the occurrence state of the niobium element in the ore dressing process. However, niobium minerals have the characteristics of relatively scattered distribution, small grain size and various morphologies, making recognition and quantitative analyses difficult. Herein, we developed a route to recognize and quantify niobium minerals by multi-stage filtration techniques: twice scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image scan and twice energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) acquisition. In this study, pyrite was used as the gray standard to guarantee the stability of gray threshold values of the same niobium grains, as well as the precision and accuracy of the EDS analyses were verified using niobium standards. In addition, the accuracy of classification of niobium minerals was confirmed by the principal component analysis method. The EDS data for the niobium standards and niobium minerals in this study were respectively consistent with the reference values and electron probe results, within the error limits. Our method minimizes the recognition and quantitative analysis time of niobium by gray calibration, twice SEM image scan and twice carrying out EDS acquisition by avoiding the quantification of unconcerned grains. The recognition and quantitative analysis method used in this study can support research on the rapid identification of fine mineral particles on a large scale, such as the seeking of rare earth minerals in rare earth deposits and dating minerals in extraterrestrial samples.

Graphical abstract: Rapid recognition and quantitative analysis of niobium minerals by scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
05 aug 2022
Accepted
23 sep 2022
First published
27 sep 2022

J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2022,37, 2392-2400

Rapid recognition and quantitative analysis of niobium minerals by scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy

J. Yuan, X. Li, Y. Chen, Z. Zhang, X. Li and S. Komarneni, J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2022, 37, 2392 DOI: 10.1039/D2JA00274D

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements