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Greenhouse Gases and Clay Minerals pp 77–94Cite as

Advanced Experimental Techniques in Geochemistry

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Part of the book series: Green Energy and Technology ((GREEN))

Abstract

Has anyone wondered why clay is the most ubiquitous geomaterial in earth’s crust but we still are in need of developing more sophisticated methods and techniques to properly characterize it? The main reason is: it is not well defined; in fact, the variations in local clay structure and composition are virtually infinite. Geological origin descriptions provide an important foundation for clay models needed for interpretation of the experimental data collected on heterogeneous samples. Chemical analysis is the most essential step in mineral analysis; it usually follows structural analysis, in order to identify the major crystalline phases and impurities. Non-destructive techniques that are complementary to crystallography are electron microscopy and NMR spectroscopy for structure determination and study of dynamics. Some of the important methods in clay mineral identification are determination of coherent scattering domain size from XRD, Bertaut-Warren-Averbach analysis, counting layers on TEM lattice-fringe images, Pt-shadowing, and calculation of the average number of fundamental particles per MacEwan crystallite. A combination of the X-ray and neutron diffraction can be used for advanced model refinement, by utilizing a technique devised by Rietveld. Synchrotron radiation can be advantageous to laboratory sources. Several other advanced techniques are described in this chapter as well. Advances (including in situ analysis) in experimental methods go hand-in-hand with advances in conceptual understanding of the experimental observations.

Gentlemen, now you will see that now you see nothing. And why you see nothing you will see presently.

—Quotations by Sir Ernest Rutherford

Do we see reality as it is? A third of the brain’s cortex is engaged in vision. The eye has a retina with 130 million photo-receptors but there are even more neuro-receptors.

—“Decoding Bursts of Light” by Moona Perrotin,

Science Rhymes, Australia, 2015.

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  1. U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Pittsburgh, USA

    Vyacheslav Romanov

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  1. National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Vyacheslav Romanov

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Romanov, V. (2018). Advanced Experimental Techniques in Geochemistry. In: Romanov, V. (eds) Greenhouse Gases and Clay Minerals. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12661-6_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12661-6_5

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