Review on the elemental analysis of polymetallic deposits by total-reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry

Abstract Total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) has been widely considered as an effective analytical tool for the analysis of a great variety type of polymetallic deposits, because it has many advantages of extremely high sensitivity, high accuracy, minor sample preparation, and the ability of multielement simultaneous analysis. Sample preparation is quite important for TXRF quantitative analysis. Since pretreatment factors, such as sample amount, dispersant type, sample particle size and sample physicochemical properties, are seriously impact the accuracy of results. Based on this reason, investigating an appropriate sample pretreatment strategy is fundamental for accurate assessment of strategic metal elements in polymetallic deposits. This review presents a comprehensive overview of TXRF applications in the field of mineral analysis, including apatite, manganese ore, K-feldspars, granite, copper-nickel sulfide ore, etc. Moreover, the accurate evaluation of TXRF quantitative analysis is detailedly discussed, and the relevant sample preparation methods and preparation factors are also addressed.