SREL Reprint #2630

Mineral fabrics analysis using a low-cost universal stage for X-ray diffractometry

Alejandro B. Rodríguez-Navarro and Christopher S. Romanek

Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia, Drawer E, Aiken, SC 29802, USA

Abstract: A low-cost universal stage with an angular resolution of 1.8° is described below that can be mounted onto an ordinary powder X-ray diffractometer. The attachment is used to characterize the microstructure (orientation of mineral grains). Microstructures of polycrystalline materials of diverse origin (eggshell, tufa and mollusk shell) were characterized by registering the intensity of diagnostic lattice reflections for a particular mineral in three dimensional space using a polar coordinate plot (hemispherical projection). Pole figure distributions were used to decipher the potential growth mechanisms that produced the microstructures observed in these mineral aggregates.

Keywords: microstructure, fabric analysis, texture, biomineralization

SREL Reprint #2630

Rodríguez-Navarro, A. B. and C. S. Romanek. 2002. Mineral fabrics analysis using a low-cost universal stage for X-ray diffractometry. Eur. J. Mineral 14:987-992.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).