O Refinamento de Rietveld como um método para o controle de qualidade de minérios de ferro

Abstract

The Rietveld method is an innovative technique for quality control and processing. A Quantification of iron ores with 2 and more phases is possible in a fraction of the time needed till now. This paper shows the most essential bases to the conditioning, preparation and quantification of simple mixtures of hematite, magnetite, goethite and quartz as principle ingredients of iron ores. Special preparation methods are necessary due to the anisotropic hematite crystals. Different sample preparations parameters must be evaluated prior to Rietveld quantification, for instance, "side loading" or "back loading" are recommended. The duration of grinding depends on the respective ore and hematite variety, usually between 4 and 12 minutes. A quantification of a 3 phases mixture turned out well with a maximum relative standard deviation of 3%.