Nanospectroscopy Captures Nanoscale Compositional Zonation in Barite Solid Solutions

Scientific Reports
Florence T LingY S Chu

Abstract

Scientists have long suspected that compositionally zoned particles can form under far-from equilibrium precipitation conditions, but their inferences have been based on bulk solid and solution measurements. We are the first to directly observe nanoscale trace element compositional zonation in <10 µm-sized particles using X-ray fluorescence nanospectroscopy at the Hard X-ray Nanoprobe (HXN) Beamline at National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II). Through high-resolution images, compositional zonation was observed in barite (BaSO4) particles precipitated from aqueous solution, in which Sr2+ cations as well as HAsO42- anions were co-precipitated into (Ba,Sr)SO4 or Ba(SO4,HAsO4) solid solutions. Under high salinity conditions (NaCl ≥ 1.0 M), bands contained ~3.5 to ~5 times more trace element compared to the center of the particle formed in early stages of particle growth. Quantitative analysis of Sr and As fractional substitution allowed us to determine that different crystallographic growth directions incorporated trace elements to different extents. These findings provide supporting evidence that barite solid solutions have great potential for trace element incorporation; this has significant implications for environmental a...Continue Reading

References

Jun 22, 2002·Environmental Science & Technology·Robert G Ford
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Apr 7, 2005·Journal of Hazardous Materials·Yinian ZhuJie Lu
Dec 9, 2010·Journal of Environmental Management·Fenglian Fu, Qi Wang
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Jul 15, 2015·Environmental Science & Technology·Tieyuan ZhangRadisav D Vidic
Apr 27, 2017·Scientific Reports·Valentina CappelloMauro Gemmi

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Citations

Apr 24, 2020·Environmental Engineering Science·Heather A HunterCatherine A Peters
Sep 13, 2020·Science Advances·A PattammattelH Yan

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
X-ray
scanning electron microscopy

Software Mentioned

NRLXRF
Matlab
PHREEQC

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