Search results for "hematite"
showing 10 items of 60 documents
Provenance and diagenesis of the evaporite-bearing Burns formation, Meridiani Planum, Mars
2005
Abstract Impure reworked evaporitic sandstones, preserved on Meridiani Planum, Mars, are mixtures of roughly equal amounts of altered siliciclastic debris, of basaltic provenance (40 ± 10% by mass), and chemical constituents, dominated by evaporitic minerals (jarosite, Mg-, Ca-sulfates ± chlorides ± Fe-, Na-sulfates), hematite and possibly secondary silica (60 ± 10%). These chemical constituents and their relative abundances are not an equilibrium evaporite assemblage and to a substantial degree have been reworked by aeolian and subaqueous transport. Ultimately they formed by evaporation of acidic waters derived from interaction with olivine-bearing basalts and subsequent diagenetic alterat…
Soils of Eagle crater and Meridiani Planum at the Opportunity Rover landing site.
2004
The soils at the Opportunity site are fine-grained basaltic sands mixed with dust and sulfate-rich outcrop debris. Hematite is concentrated in spherules eroded from the strata. Ongoing saltation exhumes the spherules and their fragments, concentrating them at the surface. Spherules emerge from soils coated, perhaps from subsurface cementation, by salts. Two types of vesicular clasts may represent basaltic sand sources. Eolian ripples, armored by well-sorted hematite-rich grains, pervade Meridiani Planum. The thickness of the soil on the plain is estimated to be about a meter. The flatness and thin cover suggest that the plain may represent the original sedimentary surface.
Iron mineralogy and aqueous alteration on Mars from the MER Mössbauer spectrometers
2008
The twin Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit (Gusev crater) and Opportunity (Meridiani Planum) used MIMOS II Moessbauer spectrometers to analyze martian surface materials in the first application of extraterrestrial Moessbauer spectroscopy. The instruments acquired spectra that identified the speciation of Fe according to oxidation state, coordination state, and mineralogical composition and provided quantitative information about the distribution of Fe among oxidation states, coordination states, and Fe-bearing phases. A total of 12 unique Fe-bearing phases were identified: Fe(2+) in olivine, pyroxene, and ilmenite; Fe(2+) and Fe(3+) in magnetite and chromite; Fe(3+) in nanophase ferric oxide (…
An astrobiological perspective on Meridiani Planum
2005
Sedimentary rocks exposed in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars record aqueous and eolian deposition in ancient dune and interdune playa-like environments that were arid, acidic, and oxidizing. On Earth, microbial populations have repeatedly adapted to low pH and both episodic and chronic water limitation, suggesting that, to a first approximation, the Meridiani plain may have been habitable during at least part of the interval when deposition and early diagenesis took place. On the other hand, the environmental conditions inferred for Meridiani deposition would have posed a challenge for prebiotic chemical reactions thought to have played a role in the origin of life on Earth. Orbital obs…
A Mössbauer spectroscopic study of salt lake sediments from Qaidam basin
1992
Mossbauer spectroscopy, X-ray diffractometry and chemical fractionation have been used to study the clay smaples in sediments of Charhan playa and Qinghai lake. The spectral components of the Mossbauer spectra of the samples are attributed to Fe2+ ions in chlorite and siderite, Fe3+ ions in clay minerals and hematite, and partly in amorphous ferric hydroxides. The essential difference in the mineral composition of the sediments of both lakes is the presence of siderite in the samples of Char han playa, whereas it is absent in the samples of Qinghai lake. The fraction of the amorphous ferric hydroxides is higher in the sediments of Qinghai lake. Total Fe2+/Fe3+ ratios increase with sediment …
Surface Analysis in Archaeology Using the Miniaturized Mössbauer Spectrometer MIMOS II
2003
A miniaturized Mossbauer spectrometer (MIMOS II) which was designed and constructed for extraterrestrial applications, such as iron-containing rock and soil analysis on the planet Mars, has been employed to investigate the iron-containing constituents in the paintings of a Lekythos Greek vase. Greek pottery is commonly painted with black figures. The Mossbauer backscattering spectra recorded with MIMOS II at room temperature show that the hand-painted black figures contain hematite.
Comparison of the electrochemical properties of hematite thin films prepared by spray pyrolysis and electrodeposition
2015
Abstract This manuscript reports differences between the photoelectrochemical (PEC) activity of hematite (α-Fe 2 O 3 ) photoanodes produced by cathodic electrodeposition (ED) and spray pyrolysis (SP) methods. Both methods yield nanostructured polycrystalline α-Fe 2 O 3 thin films without additional impurity phases. However, α-Fe 2 O 3 produced by ED is characterised to have better crystallinity and higher porosity, which was confirmed by XRD and SEM analysis. Owing to this, α-Fe 2 O 3 obtained by ED generates a photocurrent that is 2.5 times higher than α-Fe 2 O 3 thin films prepared by SP. Furthermore, the influence of the thickness of the α-Fe 2 O 3 thin films on the flat-band potential p…
Low-Temperature Atomic Layer Deposition of Crystalline and Photoactive Ultrathin Hematite Films for Solar Water Splitting
2015
We developed a low-temperature atomic layer deposition route to deposit phase pure and crystalline hematite (alpha-Fe2O3) films at 230 degrees C without the need for postannealing. Homogenous and conformal deposition with good aspect ratio coverage was demonstrated on a nanostructured substrate and analyzed by transmission electron microscopy. These as-deposited alpha-Fe2O3 films were investigated as photoanodes for photoelectrochemical water oxidation and found to be highly photoactive. Combined with a TiO2 underlayer and a low-cost Ni(OH)(2) catalyst, hematite films of less than 10 nm in thickness reached photocurrent densities of 0.3 mA cm(-2) at 1.23 V vs RHE and a photocurrent onset po…
A Unique Collection of Palaeolithic Painted Portable Art: Characterization of Red and Yellow Pigments from the Parpalló Cave (Spain).
2016
In this work we analyze the pigments used in the decoration of red and yellow motifs present in the portable art of the Parpallo Cave (Gandia, Spain), one of the most important Palaeolithic sites in the Spanish Mediterranean region. Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (EDXRF) and spectrophotometry in the visible region (CIEL*a*b*color coordinates and spectral reflectance curves) were used to perform in situ fast analyses of the red and yellow motifs with portable equipment and to characterize their elemental composition and their colorimetric perception, respectively. According to the elemental composition, the intensity of the fluorescence iron signals in red and yellow motif…
Microwave flash-synthesis of iron oxides nanoparticles
1999
Hematite particles have been synthesized by a one step thermohydrolysis of nitrate iron (III) solutions. The microwave system (RAMO system) designed by the authors is able to induce very fast heating rates within an autoclave. These operating conditions induce precipitation reactions in the entire volume of the reactor. These precipitation conditions lead to instantaneous nucleation of monodisperse particles (separation of the nucleation and growth events). These results indicate that it should be possible to produce very well-crystallized hematite particles which can be used as precursors for production of magnetite or maghemite.