Practical Application of Synchrotron Based Hard Xray Micorprobes in Soil Sciences
Many of the most pressing questions in soil sciences require characterization of elemental abundances and speciation in minute samples that are heterogeneous at the submicrometer scale. This science addresses a wide gamut of environmental and health issues of high societal impact. Synchrotron radiation sources are ideal for developing high-intensity, highly focused X-ray probes and those that have been developed to deliver high-energy photons, so-called hard X-ray microprobes (HXRM), have had a major impact in advancing our understanding of the speciation, transport, and reactions of chemical species in soils. X-ray microprobe techniques offer distinct advantages over other analytical techniques by allowing analyses to be done in situ, an important example being the ability to determine chemical speciation of a wide variety of toxic elements in moist soils and biological specimens with little or no chemical pretreatment and low detection limits. In particular, coupled microfocused X-ray fluorescence, spectroscopy, and diffraction analysis allows one to quantify the abundance and speciation of elements in these materials at trace element concentrations and evaluate the mineralogy to which they are adsorbed or bound. Increasingly, these analyses are being done as imaging experiments not only in two dimensions but three dimensionally (3D) using tomographic techniques as well. Such information is crucial in understanding the toxicity, mobility, and containment of contaminating metals in the environment, mechanisms of trace element partitioning, and paths of strategic metal enrichment in nature.
- Research Organization:
- Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE SC OFFICE OF SCIENCE (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-98CH10886
- OSTI ID:
- 1040277
- Report Number(s):
- BNL-90909-2009-JA; R&D Project: LS-001; TRN: US1202825
- Journal Information:
- Developments in Soil Science, Vol. 34
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
58 GEOSCIENCES
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ABUNDANCE
CONTAINMENT
DIFFRACTION
DIMENSIONS
ELEMENTS
FLUORESCENCE
MINERALOGY
PHOTONS
PRESSING
PROBES
SENSITIVITY
SOILS
SPECTROSCOPY
SYNCHROTRON RADIATION SOURCES
SYNCHROTRONS
TOMOGRAPHY
TOXICITY
TRACE AMOUNTS
TRANSPORT