Upgrading of the X-ray diffractometer at Mississippi State University

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EAR-0236748LynchAn X-ray diffractometer (XRD) is a fundamental research tool used by a broad cross-section of researchers at Mississippi State University. Recent XRD users have come from the Departments of Geosciences, Plants and Soil Sciences, Chemistry, Biology, Agriculture and Biological Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Chemical Engineering. The existing equipment is heavily used through a series of externally funded projects ranging from soil mineralogy, waste disposal, and precision agriculture, through sediment and pollutant transfer in aquifers, to studies on the engineering properties of rocks and sediments in Mississippi and throughout the Southeast. The XRD is also used in applied and theoretical projects directed by the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experimental Station. Dissemination of the results of these projects to the general public is a major activity of the Mississippi State Extension Service, which operates statewide out of the Plants and Soil Sciences Department at MSU. Experience in the XRD laboratory is a fundamental portion of several undergraduate, graduate, and distance-learning "K-12 Teachers in Geoscience" classes. A major concern in the aforementioned research projects is the long time needed to acquire high-quality XRD spectra. NSF support will be used to improve the XRD by purchasing a high-efficiency X-ray detector and monochrometer. These hardware upgrades significantly decrease XRD analysis time and allow large number of samples to be investigated. Funds will also be used to purchase a complete Windows-platform X-ray diffraction database and search/match programs. The software upgrades replace a DOS-platform software package and will make the XRD more "user (student) friendly" and accessible to researchers at the University.***