Identification of multiple rare earths and associated elements in raw monazite sands by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an emerging and promising tool for rapid and efficient elemental analysis. We used the LIBS technique to analyze the raw monazite sands collected from the beaches in southern Bangladesh. We have detected a number of rare earths (lanthanides) such as cerium, lanthanum, praseodymium, neodymium, yttrium, ytterbium, gadolinium, dysprosium and erbium, in addition to other metallic elements such as zirconium, chromium, titanium, magnesium, manganese, niobium and aluminum. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time multiple rare earths have been identified in a natural mineral by LIBS.