Effect of chlorine in clay-mineral specimens prepared on silver metal-membrane mounts for X-ray powder diffraction analysis

Clays and Clay Minerals
By: , and 

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Abstract

Silver metal-membrane filters are commonly used as substrates in the preparation of oriented clay-mineral specimens for X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). They are relatively unaffected by organic solvent treatments and specimens can be prepared rapidly. The filter mounts are adaptable to automatic sample changers, have few discrete reflections at higher 20 angles, and, because of the high atomic number of silver, produce a relatively low overall background compared with other membrane filters, such as cellulose (Poppe and Hathaway, 1979). The silver metal-membrane filters, however, present some problems after heat treatment if either the filters or the samples contain significant amounts of chlorine. At elevated temperature, the chloride ions react with the silver substrate to form crystalline compounds. These compounds change the mass-absorption coefficient of the sample, reducing peak intensities and areas and, therefore, complicating the semiquantitative estimation of clay minerals. A simple procedure that eliminates most of the chloride from a sample and the silver metal-membrane substrate is presented here.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Effect of chlorine in clay-mineral specimens prepared on silver metal-membrane mounts for X-ray powder diffraction analysis
Series title Clays and Clay Minerals
DOI 10.1346/CCMN.1989.0370413
Volume 37
Issue 4
Year Published 1989
Language English
Publisher The Clay Minerals Society
Description 4 p.
First page 381
Last page 384
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