Diamond trace element analysis

The primary dispersion halo and wallrock alteration around the Elura deposit was established from integrated petrographic, mineralogical and geochemical (major-, minor- and trace-element) analysis of diamond drill core samples. Seventy eight samples of variably altered and unaltered host rocks, as well as 67 near-surface weathered equivalents, were analysed for major elements using fusion disc. X-ray fluorescence analysis (XRF). Trace elements were determined by pressed powder XRF analysis. Carbonate carbon... 

Quantitative trace element analysis of diamond by LA-ICP-MS using different synthetic multielement carbon based standards (e.g., cellulose pellets) is discussed by Rege et al 2, whereby 13C was used for internal standardization. Concentrations of 41 elements were determined in two fibrous diamonds from Jwaneng Botswana (JWA 110 and 115) by relative sensitivity coefficients measured using the synthetic cellulose standard. The analytical data were verified by means of instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and proton induced X-ray emission (PIXE).72... 

Much the same can be said about the diamonds, in that most minor and trace elements are radically anomalous. But the major element, carbon, has an isotopic composition within the range of solar-system normal. Moreover, the individual diamond grains are extremely small, characteristically only a few nanometers, and too small to support analysis even of carbon in individual grains. It may be that diamond carbon appears isotopically normal only because any isotopic analysis is an average over many grains. But because of the normal carbon there is persistent suspicion that most the diamonds are not really circumstellar or even presolar after all, and that the real presolar grain carrier is a small subset of the diamonds or some other phase entirely, less abundant than the diamonds but which follows them in the separation procedures. 

LA techniques using UV YAG-Nd laser (wave length - 266 nm) for trace analysis of natural and artificial diamonds and for detenuination of chemical composition of micro-inclusions (5 - 50 p.m ) in natural quartzites were developed by ICP-MS ELEMENT (Germany). 

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