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Hi Evelyn, about 25 years ago I was using basalt to lower the melting point of feldspars and decrease the viscosity of the melt. The basalt (young) has to be thoroughly degassed (a few hours at 1300-1400 °C), then ground to about 100 mesh (not much finer, to avoid electrostatic charging during loading and ejection from the crucible during heating) and added in a 4:1 or 3:1 ratio to the feldspar. In the end, it turned out to be not necessary for terrestrial feldspars, as they will degas completely if the stepheating routine is slow and long enough. As a flux for lunar anorthosites I'd expect it should work quite well, provided its O does not exchange with the sample after melting. Best regards Igor On 11.07.2016, at 10:21, Evelyn Füri <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Dear Colleagues, > > In preparation for a possible future mission to the Moon for in-situ volatile (O, C, N, noble gases) analyses, I am trying to figure out if a “flux” could be used to lower the melting temperature of the sample and increase the volatile extraction efficiency. > Hence, I would like to find out if any of you have ever successfully (or unsuccessfully) used a flux for the noble gas extraction from minerals or glass by heating. > > I would greatly appreciate any replies ([log in to unmask]). > > Best regards, > > Evelyn > > ********************************************** > Dr. Evelyn Füri > Centre de Recherches Petrographiques et Geochimiques (CRPG/CNRS) > Phone: (+33) 03 83 59 42 10 > Email: [log in to unmask] > ********************************************** > ************* Igor M. Villa Institut für Geologie Baltzerstrasse 3 3012 BERN, Switzerland Tel 0041 31 631 8777