Comparing the Success Rate of Raman Spectroscopy and Powder XRD for Routine Mineral Identification

This study provides a measurement of success rate of Raman spectroscopy for mineral identification, and a direct comparison of powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) is provided by applying the same procedure for measuring its success rate against the identical set of samples. Consistent, standardised analytical procedures were applied to a set of fifty-five minerals, and a success score was assigned to the results of each analytical method for each sample. For each analytical method, an average success rate (on a scale of 0-100) was calculated from these success scores. The success rate measured for powder XRD is 89, while the success rate for Raman spectroscopy came to 77. As the most common analytical challenge in Raman spectroscopy is specimen photoluminescence (PL), an estimate of the impact of technological advances that would eliminate this interference is provided by recalculating the success rate after removing the samples that produced PL interference from consideration. The resulting no-PL success rate of 90 indicates that the success rate of Raman spectroscopy would be quite comparable to powder XRD if PL interference could be removed from Raman spectra.