High mass resolution ion microprobe analysis of rare earth elements in silicate glass, apatite and zircon: lack of matrix dependency

The concentrations of all rare earth elements (REE: La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb and Lu) in silicate glass, apatite and zircon were measured by an ion microprobe method with a high mass resolving power of 9300 at 1% peak height. Observed contents of REE in apatite extracted from a dacite agree well with those measured by the isotope dilution-thermal ionization mass spectrometry (ID-TIMS) method within 30% error at 2σ. The contents of heavy REE in several zircons are consistent with those measured by ID-TIMS and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), while the light REE abundances are significantly lower by ion microprobe than by the other methods. The discrepancy is partly due to the presence of 1–5-μm inclusions of apatites within zircon crystals. Secondary ion yields of REE observed in a silicate glass show a very similar trend to those in apatite and zircon. Since the chemical composition of the silicate glass is appreciably different from the apatite and zircon, relative secondary ion yields of REE are probably independent from matrix effect, which is the most important finding of this work. Calculated partition coefficients of REE between melt and apatite agree well with reported values while the coefficients between melt and zircon are discrepant from those in literature. The REE coefficients in zircon increase with increase of the ionic radius logarithmically, suggesting power law dependence of the coefficients.