Rietveld Refinement Based Quantitative Phase Analysis (QPA) of Ouargla (Part of Grand Erg Oriental in Algeria) Dunes San
- PDF / 1,437,673 Bytes
- 9 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 39 Downloads / 174 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
Rietveld Refinement Based Quantitative Phase Analysis (QPA) of Ouargla (Part of Grand Erg Oriental in Algeria) Dunes Sand Khouloud Hadjadj 1 & Smaïl Chihi 1 Received: 5 August 2020 / Accepted: 4 November 2020 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract In this paper, XRD Rietveld refinements by using MAUD (Materials Analysis Using Diffraction) software have been performed to determine the quantitative identification of the crystalline phases in the dunes sand of Ouargla (Algeria). The main XRD reflections were related to quartz (SiO2), gypsum (CaSO42(H2O)) and bassanite (CaSO40.67(H2O)). Structural (space group, lattice parameters and unit cell volume), microstructural (crystallite size and microstrain) and percentages have been determined for each constituting phase. The XRD patterns of natural sample of Ouargla dunes sand indicated that the quartz in this sand has high crystalline nature and (101) is the preferred orientation of quartz growth. It has been appeared that quartz has the hexagonal structure at α- phase. The crystallite sizes of quartz, gypsum and bassanite were 970.57 nm, 522.70 and 99.98 nm respectively. Some comparisons have been made with other recent works. The refined XRD patterns show that quartz and gypsum were the main components in this sand, with 72.11% and 23.77% respectively, in addition to 4.34% of basanite. All this was done with goodness of fit (GOF) 1.70. Keywords Dunes sand . XRD . MAUD . Rietveld refinement . Crystalline phase
1 Introduction In recent years, Algeria has embarked huge projects to exploit solar energy (building electricity power plants, producing silicon panels, etc.) [1]. Therefore, it is very useful to exploit desert sand, which is a free and local natural source of quartz in order to manufacture glass and quartz from which solar cells are made [2]. Algeria has the largest area in Africa, it has a variety of terrain and geology, and it has huge and long chains of sand dunes rich in large mineral reserves that can be extracted from sand [3]. The sand dunes of the Algerian desert alone constitute more than half a million square kilometers, equivalent to a quarter of Algeria’s area (about 2.4 million square kilometers) [4]. Large dune fields are known to geologists as “ergs”, the Arabic term for these extensive regions of sand. The eastern
* Khouloud Hadjadj [email protected]; [email protected] 1
Faculty Mathematics and Matter Sciences, Department Physics, Laboratory Radiation, Plasmas and Surface Physics (LRPPS), University Ouargla, 30000 Ouargla, Algeria
erg (known as the Oriental or Grand Erg Oriental) of Algeria includes hundreds of dune mounds. From more detailed images we know that these are star dunes. Monique Mainguet and Christine Jacqueminet [5] indicate that the total area of the Grand Erg Oriental is about 130 thousands square kilometers. This is confirmed by the official website of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which shows that the erg itself occupies a vast area of approximately 600 km by
Data Loading...
