Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy; Uranium ore; Elements distribution; Self-organizing maps;

This paper presents a novel approach for processing the spectral information obtained from high-resolution elemental mapping performed by means of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy. The proposed methodology is aimed at the description of possible elemental associations within a heterogeneous sample. High-resolution elemental mapping provides a large number of measurements. Moreover, typical laser-induced plasma spectrum consists of several thousands of spectral variables. Analysis of heterogeneous samples, where valuable information is hidden in a limited fraction of sample mass, requires special treatment. The sample under study is a sandstone-hosted uranium ore that shows irregular distribution of ore elements such as zirconium, titanium, uranium and niobium. Presented processing methodology shows the way to reduce the dimensionality of data and retain the spectral information by utilizing self-organizing maps (SOM). The spectral information from SOM is processed further to detect either simultaneous or isolated presence of elements. Conclusions suggested by SOM are in good agreement with geological studies of mineralization phases performed at the deposit. Even deeper investigation of the SOM results enables discrimination of interesting measurements and reveals new possibilities in the visualization of chemical mapping information. Suggested approach improves the description of elemental associations in mineral phases, which is crucial for the mining industry.

NMR; LIBS; Surface relaxivity; Paramagnetic impurities; Porous media;NUCLEAR MAGNETIC-RELAXATION; POROUS-MEDIA WETTABILITY; TO-VOLUME RATIO; SEDIMENTARY-ROCKS; NMR RELAXOMETRY; PROTON NMR; PORE SIZES; DIFFUSION; VALIDATION; REGRESSION

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxometry is a common technique used to assess the pore size of fluid-filled porous materials in a wide variety of fields. However, the NMR signal itself only provides a relative distribution of pore size. To calculate an absolute pore size distribution from the NMR data, the material's surface relaxivity needs to be known. Here, a method is presented using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to evaluate surface relaxivity in sandstones. NMR transverse and longitudinal relaxation was measured on a set of sandstone samples and the surface relaxivity was calculated from the pore size distribution determined with MICP measurements. Using multivariate analysis, it was determined that the LIBS data can predict with good accuracy the longitudinal (R-2 similar to 0.84) and transverse (R-2 similar to 0.79) surface relaxivity. Analysis of the regression coefficients shows significant influence from several elements. Some of these are elements previously established to have an effect on surface relaxivity, such as iron and manganese, while others are not commonly associated with surface relaxivity, such as cobalt and titanium. Furthermore, LIBS provides advantages compared to current methods to calibrate surface relaxivity in terms of speed, portability, and sample size requirements. While this paper focuses on geological samples, the method could potentially be expanded to other types of porous materials. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

HELIUM GAS PLASMA; QUANTITATIVE-ANALYSIS; DEUTERIUM

A study of hydrogen and oxygen and its reaction with host elements in a sandstone has been done by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The sandstone was irradiated by Nd-YAG laser (1064 nm, 7 ns) with varied energy of 60 mJ till 140 mJ in surrounding air gas pressure of 1 atm and produced plasma. The emission intensities of hydrogen H I 656.2 nm and oxygen O I 777.2 nm in the plasma were captured by HR 2500(+) spectrometer and displayed in intensity as a function of wavelength. The data show that the emission intensities of hydrogen and oxygen increase with increasing laser energy at a gradient of 5.4 and 11.8 respectively every increasing laser energy of 20 mJ. To characterize the reaction process between hydrogen and oxygen with the host elements of the sandstone, a 0.2 ml demineralized water was dropped on the sandstone surface and was analyzed as a function of delay time reaction and temperature. The data show that the oxidation reaction between host elements and oxygen occurred after 25 minutes that the oxygen emission intensity increases and the hydrogen emission intensity decreases. Another data also show that the increasing temperature of sandstone until 80 degrees C increased intermolecular bond between oxygen and host element and dehydrogenation took place after reaching this temperature