Development of a Handheld Field-Deployable Mineral Analyser

x射线粉末衍射是一种成熟的材料分析技术，其结果与样品材料的微晶结构直接相关。它是鉴定和定量岩石矿物含量的权威方法。许多材料在微米尺度（一微米等于千分之一毫米）的性质上是结晶的——岩石、土壤、许多原材料和建筑材料、金属——因此这项技术在研究和工业环境中都有非常广泛的适用性。标准方法通常需要仔细制备样品。例如，岩石必须磨成细粉，然后装入样品井中。样品表面必须平整，并在x射线衍射（XRD）仪器内精确定位。莱斯特大学正在开发一种新的XRD技术，该技术对样品的形状和形式几乎完全不敏感。这种独特的特性使分析，例如，岩石样品，不需要任何准备的岩石。此外，这项技术的基本原理有利于特别紧凑和轻便的仪器设计。由于缺乏任何样品制备要求，该方法本身也是快速的。该技术的特点使得首次开发出一种手持式XRD设备，用于现场矿物的快速鉴定和定量。关键的商业应用是采矿和采石，这一应用将成为该项目的重点。项目目标有两个方面。首先，将使用充分代表采矿中遇到的问题的样本来开发技术和方法。例如，在铁矿开采中，了解氧化铁矿物赤铁矿、磁铁矿和针铁矿的相对含量是很重要的。手持设备将为采矿作业带来许多好处，例如迅速划定矿石边界和评价矿石品位，以便有效地管理爆破、挖掘和运输作业。其次，将开发一个原型手持设备进行现场测试。该装置将由现有的手持式x射线荧光（XRF）仪器改造而成。XRF是一种与XRD相关的技术，但只能得到样品的元素组成，而不能得到矿物组成。新的原型将结合样品的XRD和XRF信息。该项目是莱斯特大学和布鲁克元素公司之间的合作伙伴关系，布鲁克元素公司是布鲁克公司的一个部门，生产用于元素分析的科学仪器，包括手持式XRF仪器，并在相关市场拥有全球影响力。

X-ray powder diffractometry is a well-established materials analysis technique which produces results directly linked to the microcrystalline structure of the sample material. It is the definitive method for the identification and quantification of the mineral content of rocks. Many materials are crystalline in nature at the micron-scale (one micron equals a thousandth of a millimetre) - rocks, soils, many raw materials and building materials, metals - and so the technique has very wide applicability both in research and industrial contexts. Standard methods generally require careful preparation of the sample. For example, rocks must be ground to a fine powder and loaded into a sample well. The sample surface must be flat, and positioned accurately within the x-ray diffraction (XRD) instrument. A novel XRD technique which exhibits almost complete insensitivity to the shape and form of the sample is being developed at the University of Leicester. This unique characteristic enables the analysis of, for example, rock samples with no requirement for any preparation of the rock. Furthermore, the principles underlying this technique favour an especially compact and lightweight instrument design. The method is also inherently fast, aided by the lack of any sample preparation requirement. The characteristics of this technique enable, for the first time, the development of a handheld XRD device for the rapid identification and quantification of minerals in the field. The key commercial application is in mining and quarrying, and this application will serve as the focus of the project. The project objectives are two-fold. Firstly, the technique and methodology will be developed using samples which are fully representative of problems encountered in mining. For example, in iron ore mining it is important to know the relative amounts of the iron oxide minerals hematite, magnetite and goethite. A handheld device would bring numerous advantages in mining operations, such as the rapid delineation of ore boundaries and assessment of ore grades for the efficient management of blasting, excavation and haulage operations. Secondly, a prototype handheld device will be developed for field testing. This device will be adapted from an existing handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) instrument. XRF is a related technique to XRD, but yields the elemental composition of the sample only, not the mineralogical composition. The new prototype will combine both XRD and XRF information about the sample. This project is a partnership between the University of Leicester and Bruker Elemental, a division of Bruker which manufactures scientific instruments for elemental analysis, including handheld XRF instruments, and has global presence in the relevant markets.