Geologica Belgica

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Ruben SNELLINGS, Lieven MACHIELS, Gilles MERTENS & Jan ELSEN

Rietveld refinement strategy for quantitative phase analysis of partially amorphous zeolitized tuffaceous rocks

(volume 13 (2010) — number 3)
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Annexes

Mots-clés : natural zeolites, Rietveld method, quantitative analysis, tuffs, amorphous phase, synchrotron

Abstract

Abstract The Rietveld method has become one of the most popular methods in quantitative mineralogical analysis based on X-ray powder diffraction. An estimate of the amorphous phase content can be made by introducing a known amount of an appropriate internal standard. This method was applied to a selected set of zeolitized tuffaceous rocks to develop guidelines for Rietveld quantitative phase analysis in complex mixtures. A local sensitivity analysis of selected refinable parameters was performed and phase abundance results for synchrotron and laboratory based X-ray diffraction data collection were compared. The calculated amorphous phase fraction showed a very high sensitivity towards the refined amount of internal standard, in particular when small amounts of amorphous phase were encountered in the samples. Optimal reproducibility of phase abundance results were obtained when a sufficient number of background polynomials were employed and the internal standard thermal parameters were not refined. A very good correlation between laboratory and synchrotron data was achieved when the communicated refinement strategy was followed, supporting the use of laboratory equipment for routine quantitative mineralogical analysis.

To cite this article

Ruben SNELLINGS, Lieven MACHIELS, Gilles MERTENS & Jan ELSEN, «Rietveld refinement strategy for quantitative phase analysis of partially amorphous zeolitized tuffaceous rocks», Geologica Belgica [En ligne], volume 13 (2010), number 3, 183-196 URL : http://popups.ulg.be/1374-8505/index.php?id=2923.

About: Ruben SNELLINGS

Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, K.U.Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium. E-mail: ruben.snellings@ees.kuleuven.be

About: Lieven MACHIELS

Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, K.U.Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium.

About: Gilles MERTENS

Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, K.U.Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium.

About: Jan ELSEN

Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, K.U.Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E, B-3001 Heverlee, Belgium.