Acquisition of an X-Ray Suite (XRD and WD-XRF) to support Geology and Geological Engineering Research and Education at the University of Mississippi

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The Geology and Geological Engineering (GGE) Department at the University of Mississippi (UM) conducts a variety of research projects that require knowledge of the chemical composition of rocks, minerals, soils, and fossils. Identification of material crystal structure is commonly needed by geoscientists and engineers and X-ray diffraction (XRD) meets this need. The acquisition of an XRD instrument on the UM campus will immediately enhance the efficiency of GGE faculty research. This research will help in reconstructions of the positions of the continents throughout Earth history, models of past climate changes experienced by the Gulf of Mexico region, enhancement of well drilling methodologies, development of technologies for prevention of groundwater pollution, and increased understanding of evolution of marine life. In addition, the new instrument will support at least 22 undergraduate and graduate courses and will benefit more than 200 students in the UM GGE department each year, while improving the quality of education of students across a wide range of disciplines. The types of projects enabled with XRD technology will better prepare UM students with practical job skills to make them more competitive in the global workforce. Funds were requested to acquire a Rigaku MiniFlex 6G Benchtop X-ray diffractometer (XRD) for use in the Geology and Geological Engineering (GGE) Department at the University of Mississippi (UM). The scope of UM GGE research requires the rapid and accurate determination of bulk composition of powdered earth materials enabled by the requested instrument. The new XRD will be an integral laboratory component for the UM GGE Department in a number of research and education programs and will immediately benefit 13 faculty members. The requested XRD has a D/teX Ultra 1D advanced silicon strip detector, available with a receiving monochromator and an 8-position auto-sampler that will facilitate high-speed, high-dynamic range, low-noise data collection in 0D and 1D modes to obtain intensity from a few tens to ~100 times greater than a conventional scintillation counter. The MiniFlex 6G has a compact footprint, requiring minimal benchtop space and has a user-friendly system designed for easy operation, minimizing the time required for training and expanding the potential operators to include undergraduate students. This versatility will accommodate the high volume of expected bulk samples required for ongoing mineralogy, sedimentology, paleontology, evaporite geology, and hydrogeology projects in the UM GGE Department. This project is jointly funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Earth Sciences Instrumentation and Facilities (EAR/IF) Program in the Division of Earth Sciences and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.