Mineralogical Analysis for the Atmospheric Dust Samples

A method for mineralogical analysis of atmospheric dust samples by XRD is developed. Sample pretreatment procedure includes two steps. Firstly, particles in the loading filters are separated from the Teflon filters using an ultrasonic vibrator and then concentrated by low temperature vaporization. Secondly, these particles are freely deposited on a pure monocrystalline silicon slide by using pipette for XRD analysis. To obtain semiquantitative results of the XRD analysis, quartz was selected as a reference mineral to calculate other mineral reference contents. Results show that the mineral reference contents in dust samples from different sites can be use to trace different aerosol sources.