TY - JOUR A1 - Schmid, Thomas A1 - Jungnickel, Robert A1 - Dariz, P. T1 - Insights into the CaSO4–H2O System: A Raman-Spectroscopic Study JF - Minerals N2 - Even though being the subject of natural scientific research for many decades, the system CaSO4–H2O, consisting of the five crystalline phases gypsum, bassanite, and the anhydrites III, II, and I, has left many open questions for research. Raman spectroscopy was used because of its structural sensitivity and in situ measurement capability to obtain further insight by studying phase transitions in both ex situ and in situ experiments. The findings include significant contributions to the completeness and understanding of Raman spectroscopic data of the system. The dehydration path gypsum–bassanite–anhydrite III was shown to have strong parallels to a physical drying process, which depends on many parameters beyond the burning temperature. Raman band width determination was demonstrated to enable the quantitative discrimination of α-bassanite and β-bassanite as well as the postulated three sub-forms of anhydrite II (AII), which are all based on differences in crystallinity. In the latter case, the observed continuous structural variations over increasing burning temperatures were elucidated as a combination of decreasing surface areas and healing of crystal lattice defects. We propose an only two-fold sub-division of AII into reactive “disordered AII” and much less reactive “crystalline AII” with a transition temperature of 650°C ± 50 K. KW - Gypsum KW - Bassanite KW - Hemihydrate KW - Anhydrite KW - Raman spectroscopy PY - 2020 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-506701 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/min10020115 SN - 2075-163X VL - 10 IS - 2 SP - 115, 35 PB - MDPI CY - Basel AN - OPUS4-50670 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schmid, Thomas A1 - Dariz, P. T1 - Editorial for the special issue "Modern Raman spectroscopy of minerals" JF - Minerals N2 - Raman spectroscopy provides vibrational fingerprints of chemical compounds enabling their unambiguous identification. The assignment of Raman spectra to minerals is straightforward, if appropriate reference data is accessible. Modern couplings of Raman spectroscopy with microscopy (Raman microspectroscopy) merge the high structural specificity with down to sub-micrometre spatial resolution. This analytical tool has high potential not only in the identification of minerals from natural sources but also for studying the complex microstructure and mineral distribution of both ancient and modern man-made materials. In addition to the chemical identity of minerals, Raman spectra are affected by crystal orientations (varying relative Raman band intensities); (sub)stoichiometric compositional changes (e.g., in solid solution series), traces of foreign ions, strain (the latter three shifting Raman bands); and crystallinity (changing Raman band widths), enabling a comprehensive physico-chemical characterisation of minerals. Thus, Raman spectroscopy – including its in situ measurement capabilities – provides possibilities to study mineral paragenesis in both, natural and man-made samples at the micrometre scale. While in 1928 the first experimental evidence for inelastic light scattering was provided by C. V. Raman and K. S. Krishnan by using sunlight for excitation, filters for selecting the inelastically scattered light, and their eyes for detection (later, photographic plates for acquisition of spectra were employed), modern Raman spectrometers make use of laser excitation, dispersive spectrographs and charge coupled device (CCD) detection. This Special Issue includes technological developments and applications in the field of modern Raman spectroscopy of minerals in a broad sense, from natural mineral deposits and archaeological objects to inorganic phases in man-made materials. The studied minerals include fossil resins, typical rock-forming minerals (calcite, quartz, forsterite), iron-sulphur species (e.g., mackinawite), a range of sulphates (gypsum, bassanite, anhydrite III, anhydrite II, celestine, barite, ternesite), as well as silicate minerals like garnets (e.g., almandine). KW - Raman spectroscopy KW - Raman microspectroscopy KW - Mineral identification KW - Physico-chemical characterisation of minerals KW - Mineral paragenesis PY - 2020 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-515041 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/min10100860 VL - 10 SP - 860 PB - MDPI CY - Basel AN - OPUS4-51504 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -