Analysis of Apatite

Apatite is a naturally occurring mineral normally used in the manufacturing of fertilizers and gemstones. Apatite fertilizers are used to supplement the nutrition of many agricultural crops by providing a valuable source of phosphate.

For routine process control of apatite, 8 elements must be monitored (P, Al, Si, Na, K, Ca, Fe and Ti). The analysis must not only be highly accurate but very fast as well. These requirements make the analysis ideal for wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF).

WDXRF analysis is a stable fast analytical technique which requires very little sample preparation. Elemental analysis techniques such as ICP or AA require the samples to be digested and diluted into an aqueous solution for analysis. In contrary, samples in WDXRF simply can be analyzed as loose powder, pressed pellet, lithium borate fusion or even in a liquid solution.

Read the full Application Note - AN41659 (PDF: 1.2 MB)