Glow discharge analysis of silicate rocks and minerals

The grim-glow discharge is used to determine the major and minor elements in silicate rocks and minerals which are markedly different in structure, chemical and physical composition. Since material release in the glow discharge analysis is not thermal, it is shown that this type of discharge is essentially free from the influence of the physical and chemical composition of the sample. Thus major and minor elements are determined with high precision and accuracy with substantiate the validity of the glow discharge technique for analysing nonconducting materials