Mineral Characterization Using Micro X-ray Diffraction (micro XRD), a State-of-the-Art Non-Destructive Technique

  • Dr Muthukumaraswamy Pannirselvam, School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, Australia
  • Dr Frank Antolasic, School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, Australia
  • Dr Ashish Garg, School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, Australia
  • Dr Stephen Grocott, Rio Tinto, Australia
  • Prof Suresh Bhargava, School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University, Australia

    • The Bruker AXS (D8 Discover) diffractometer is a state-of-the-art X-ray diffraction instrument that is capable of conducting X-ray examination of minerals down to microscopic levels i.e. 50 to 500 microns. The aim of this paper is to explore different aspects of micro X-ray diffraction that enable the users to image and map the phase distribution in complex minerals, and to find crystalline information with little or no sample preparation. This method is suitable for polycrystalline samples that cannot be studied by conventional powder X-ray diffraction methods. With conventional powder X-ray diffraction, one requires large quantities of the sample, ~ 1 g, but with micro diffraction, only a few mg is needed. In this paper, results are presented for ten different whole rock samples that were tested with no or very little sample preparation. Computer assisted mineral identification (EVA search / match) software was used to match with a database of standard XRD patterns.