Critical assessment of platinum group element determination in road and urban river sediments using ultrasonic nebulisation and high resolution ICP-MS

2000 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastien Rauch ◽  
Mikael Motelica-Heino ◽  
Gregory M. Morrison ◽  
Olivier F. X. Donard
2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (6) ◽  
pp. 1755-1773
Author(s):  
José María González-Jiménez ◽  
Irina Tretiakova ◽  
Marco Fiorentini ◽  
Vladimir Malkovets ◽  
Laure Martin ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on a nanoscale study of nano- and micrometer-size Os-rich mineral particles hosted in a Ni-Fe-Cu sulfide globule found in an olivine megacryst from the Udachnaya pipe (Yakutia, Russia). These platinum-group element mineral particles and their host sulfide matrices were investigated using a combination of techniques, including field emission gun electron probe microanalyzer, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and focused ion beam and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The sulfide globule is of mantle origin, as it is hosted in primitive olivine (Fo90–93), very likely derived from the crystallization of Ni-Fe-Cu sulfide melt droplets segregated by liquid immiscibility from a basaltic melt in a volume of depleted subcontinental lithospheric mantle. Microscopic observations by means of field emission scanning electron microscopy and single-spot analysis and mapping by field emission gun electron probe microanalyzer reveal that the sulfide globule comprises a core of pyrrhotite with flame-like exsolutions (usually <10 μm thickness) of pentlandite, which is irregularly surrounded by a rim of granular pentlandite and chalcopyrite. Elemental mapping by energy dispersive spectroscopy (acquired using the high-resolution transmission electron microscopy) of the pyrrhotite (+ pentlandite) core reveals that pentlandite exsolution in pyrrhotite is still observable at the nanoscale as fringes of 100 to 500 nm thicknesses. The sulfide matrices of pyrrhotite, pentlandite, and chalcopyrite contain abundant nano- and micrometer-size platinum group element mineral particles. A careful inspection of eight of these platinum group element particles under focused ion beam and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy showed that they are crystalline erlichmanite (OsS2) with well-developed crystal faces that are distinctively oriented relative to their sulfide host matrices. We propose that the core of the Ni-Fe-Cu sulfide globule studied here was derived from a precursor monosulfide solid solution originally crystallized from a sulfide melt at >1100 °C, which later decomposed into pyrrhotite and the pentlandite flame-like exsolutions upon cooling at <600 °C. Once solidified, the solid monosulfide solid solution reacted with non-equilibrium Cu-and Ni-rich sulfide melt(s), giving rise to the granular pentlandite in equilibrium with chalcopyrite now forming the rim of the sulfide globule. Meanwhile, nano- to micron-sized crystals of erlichmanite crystallized directly from or slightly before monosulfide solid solution from the sulfide melt. Thus, Os, and to a lesser extent Ir and Ru, were physically partitioned by preferential uptake via early formation of nanoparticles at high temperature instead of low-temperature exsolution from solid Ni-Fe-Cu sulfides. The new data provided in this paper highlight the necessity of studying platinum group element mineral particles in Ni-Fe-Cu sulfides using analytical techniques that can image nanoscale textural features in order to better understand the mechanisms of platinum group element fractionation in magmatic systems. These processes may play a crucial role in controlling the background geochemical budgets for siderophile and chalcophile elements in a wide range of mantle-derived magmas.


2020 ◽  
Vol 115 (6) ◽  
pp. 1343-1361
Author(s):  
Valeriya D. Brovchenko ◽  
Sergey F. Sluzhenikin ◽  
Elena V. Kovalchuk ◽  
Sofia V. Kovrigina ◽  
Vera D. Abramova ◽  
...  

Abstract The deepest terminations of the Mount Rudnaya subvertical massive sulfide offshoots of the Norilsk 1 orebody are composed of exceptionally fine grained sulfides that are believed to be natural quenched sulfide solid solutions. Copper-rich intermediate solid solution (ISS) and Fe-rich monosulfide solid solution (MSS) form an equigranular and lamellar matrix hosting MSS- and ISS-dominant globules. The nonstoichiometric chemical compositions of the solid solutions plot within their high-temperature fields known from experiments. MSS contains 19 to 35 wt % Ni, 0.09 to 0.45 wt % Co, and up to 0.6 wt % Cu and is heterogeneously enriched in Rh (up to 32 ppm), Ir (up to 0.6 ppm), Pt (up to 65 ppm), and Pd (up to 168 ppm). ISS occurs as the lamellar intergrowths of the chalcopyrite (Ccpss) and cubanite (Cubss) solid solutions, which bear up to 4.74 wt % Ni and 0.2 wt % Co and are heterogeneously enriched in Zn, Ag, and In. The assemblage of platinum group minerals (PGMs) is hosted mostly in the ISS and is dominated by Pt-Fe alloys and minerals of the rustenburgite-atokite series, like the set of PGMs at the Norilsk 1 deposit. Similar Pt-Pd-Sn compounds in the laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) spectra of profiles through MSS and ISS are interpreted to be trapped microinclusions. The pentlandite contains up to 0.13 wt % Pt, up to 4.62 wt % Pd, <0.53 wt % Co, and <0.4 wt % Cu according to electron microprobe analysis. LA-ICP-MS data and mapping show that Pd content in the pentlandite increases toward contacts with ISS and decreases toward contacts with MSS, supporting a reaction origin of pentlandite. The wide variations of the concentrations of major and trace elements in the solid solutions, as well as the coexistence of Pd-poor (a few ppm Pd) and Pd-rich (over 4.62 wt % Pd) pentlandite within a single sample, seem to characterize the different generations of the MSS to MSS-ISS globules, antecrysts, and phenocrysts with the distinct histories of enrichment due to exchange with fractionated Cu-platinum group element-rich residue. The directional distribution of Pd of high-temperature primary magmatic origin is preserved due to rapid quenching of the sulfides from ~650°C.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ijaz Ahmad ◽  
◽  
Jeremy P. Richards ◽  
Jingao Liu ◽  
D. Graham Pearson ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Pedro Waterton ◽  
James Mungall ◽  
D. Graham Pearson

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