Analytical Techniques: Their Precision and Accuracy

Abstract

This chapter is deliberately brief. It is impossible to cover the technical details of all the analytical techniques applicable to feldspars. Emphasis is placed here on the developments since 1974, and readers are referred to 2, 3-14 for earlier work. Most analyses of the major elements in feldspars are now made routinely with an electron probe, and the principal challenges concern the trace and minor elements. Because small amounts of mechanical impurities can cause significant bias in bulk analyses for these latter constituents, micro- probe techniques have been or are being developed; these involve bombardment by focused electron, proton, ion and X-ray beams. Physical techniques (Chap. 11) are providing important information on the structural locations of trace and minor elements.