The elemental analysis of apatite minerals is an important study that is utilized in several applications in geology, biology, medicine, agriculture, technology, and environmental remediation. Laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) is a routine method for the elemental analysis of apatite microcrystals in geological applications. In this study, we propose a new method for the analysis of single grain of apatite with a mass of a few μg using total-reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (TXRF), which is faster, cheaper, and easier in quantification procedure than LA-ICP-MS. The direct preparation of the single apatite microcrystal on the quartz carrier using nitric acid digestion and quantification using the stoichiometric value of P as an internal standard allows to obtain the major, minor, and trace elements (from K to U) simultaneously. For the choice of the internal standard in TXRF, the Raman spectroscopy is applied to obtain the information of the mineral phases and their distribution formed in the apatite sample after the digestion procedure. Validation of the proposed TXRF method is conducted by the analysis of reference materials (Durango and Otter Lake) and comparison of results with the TXRF for bulk-type of apatite and LA-ICP-MS methods.

磷灰石矿物的元素分析是一项重要的研究，可用于地质、生物学、医学、农业、技术和环境修复等多个领域。激光烧蚀电感耦合质谱 (LA-ICP-MS) 是地质应用中磷灰石微晶元素分析的常规方法。在这项研究中，我们提出了一种使用全反射 X 射线荧光光谱法 (TXRF) 分析质量为几微克的单颗粒磷灰石的新方法，该方法比 LA 更快、更便宜且在定量过程中更容易-ICP-MS。使用硝酸消化和定量，使用 P 的化学计量值作为内标，在石英载体上直接制备单个磷灰石微晶，可以获得主要、次要、和微量元素（从 K 到 U）。对于 TXRF 中内标的选择，应用拉曼光谱来获得消解程序后磷灰石样品中形成的矿物相及其分布的信息。通过分析参考材料（杜兰戈和奥特湖）并将结果与​​ TXRF 对散装磷灰石和 LA-ICP-MS 方法的结果进行比较，对提议的 TXRF 方法进行了验证。