Development of a Matrix‐Matched Sphalerite Reference Material (MUL‐ZnS‐1) for Calibration of In Situ Trace Element Measurements by Laser Ablation‐Inductively Coupled Plasma‐Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Sphalerite (ZnS) is an abundant ore mineral and an important carrier of elements such as Ge, Ga and In used in high‐technology applications. In situ measurements of trace elements in natural sphalerite samples using LA‐ICP‐MS are hampered by a lack of homogenous matrix‐matched sulfide reference materials available for calibration. The preparation of the MUL‐ZnS1 calibration material containing the trace elements V, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Ga, Ge, As, Se, Mo, Ag, Cd, In, Sn, Sb, Tl and Pb besides Zn, Fe and S is reported. Commercially available ZnS, FeS, CdS products were used as the major components, whereas the trace elements were added by doping with single‐element ICP‐MS standard solutions and natural mineral powders. The resulting powder mixture was pressed to pellets and sintered at 400 °C for 100 h using argon as an inert gas. To confirm the homogeneity of major and trace element distributions within the MUL‐ZnS1 calibration material, measurements were performed using EPMA, solution ICP‐MS, ICP‐OES and LA‐ICP‐MS. The results show that MUL‐ZnS‐1 is an appropriate material for calibrating trace element determination in sphalerite using LA‐ICP‐MS.

Potential of Critical High-technology Metals in Eastern Alpine Base Metal Sulfide Ores

“…These sections were analysed using optical and electron microscopes to identify the overall mineralogical composition, grain size and texture. LA-ICP-MS was used for a number of 23 minor and trace elements in sulphide minerals, employing a New Wave Research Nd:YAG 213 nm nano second laser ablation system coupled to an Agilent 8800 triple quadrupole ICP-MS. For quantification of the element content, the matrixmatched sintered pressed powder pellet reference material (MUL-ZnS 1 [9]) and for quality control, the USGS powder pressed polysulfide reference material MASS-1 [10] were used.…”

The new critical metals database “HTMET”: High tech trace element characteristics of sulphides from base metal provinces in the Variscan basement and adjacent sedimentary rocks in Germany

“…The isotopes 34 S, 44 Ca, 51 V, 52 Cr, 55 Mn, 56,57 Fe, 59 Co, 60 Ni, 63,65 Cu, 66 Zn, 71 Ga, 74 Ge, 75 As, 77,78,82 205 Tl and 208 Pb were monitored by the ICP-MS using a dwell time of 10 ms for each isotope. In the analytical sessions, the sphalerite reference material MUL-ZnS-1 (Onuk et al 2017) and the polymetallic reference material MASS-01 (Danyushevsky et al 2011) were ablated several times. Element concentrations in sphalerite were quantified using MUL-ZnS-1 as an external calibration material and MASS-01 as reference material for quality control (Wilson et al 2002;Yuan et al 2012).…”

Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research Bibliographic Review 2017

“…In the microanalytical field, there is also a newly developed RM filling a gap for sulfide matrices (Onuk et al . ) and two specific quartz RMs UNIL‐Q1 and BGI‐Q1 for oxygen isotope analysis by SIMS (Seitz et al . ).…”

“…Also to mention are other interesting new materials Peters and Pettke (2017) provide a large data set obtained by a refined pressed powder pellet LA-ICP-MS technique based on the foundation by Garbe-Sch€ onberg and Mueller (2014). In the microanalytical field, there is also a newly developed RM filling a gap for sulfide matrices (Onuk et al 2017) and two specific quartz RMs UNIL-Q1 and BGI-Q1 for oxygen isotope analysis by SIMS (Seitz et al 2017). As a dating RM suitable for LA-ICP-MS, calcite WC-1 was presented by Roberts et al (2017).…”