How can we estimate the different oxides percentages (like Al2O3, TiO2) in given power (mixture of different minerals like talc+china clay+rutile) using XRD analysis. I have done XRD analysis of the powder but dont know how to quantify the oxides present.
Rietveld refinement of the powder XRD pattern could help you to distinguish the different oxide phases present in your sample.
Rietveld refinement will not give you the percentages of oxides. It will give you the relative percentages of the mineral phases, and the oxides will be distributed among the different phases, so further calculation is needed. However, I think some packages like SIROQUANT will calculate the oxide % from the total phase composition. It's a long time since I used it so I may be mistaken. Since your sample is a combination of crystalline materials (talc, rutile) and disordered material (clay) it will not be an easy job to obtain accurate phase composition, not impossible, just has to be done very carefully. And any error in that would then be pushed forward through the calculations.
Your better option is to use XRF on the bulk sample if you wish to obtain wt% oxides.
XRD analysis is normally used to identify the mineral phase present,
Certain parameters/ eauations are specifically used on the obtained date to get the nature of mineral..... like olivine/ garnet composition, triclinicity of feldspar etc.
Clay mineral identification is a different process based on crystal structure.
XRF is a better option for quantitative elemental analysis.
Dear Sumit,
I agree with Prof. Ian that its not easy to estimate the different oxide percentages from a mixture like you have. Recently we tried to analyse the different phases/ minerals in natural zeolites (contains Al2O3, SiO2, Fe2O3 and many other minor oxides) using XRD and still stuck with detailed analysis. However, I still believe that Rietveld analysis can be very useful!
We then used XRF and obtained accurate wt% of all the species. I am not 100% sure whether I can use this XRF data alone to conclusively decide the overall composition of all the specie or need to confirm with another technique (XRD most probably).
All the best
Rehan
@sujoy sarkar,
Sir i was trying to use the rietveld method to quantify the oxide percentage but i was failed to do so. That are just a approximation and method was bit complex.
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