High resolution transmission electron microscopy and analytical study of ilmenite weathering and oxidation

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Ilmenite (FeTiO3) is known to undergo weathering through oxidation and removal of Fe to form a continuous series of compositions from ilmenite to pseudorutile (Fe2Ti3O9), and with further weathering, to leucoxene. Details of the weathering of ilmenite on the atomic scale are not yet fully understood. Understanding alteration mechanisms is important in all chemical weathering processes, and for ilmenite, the chemical changes during weathering determine the processing methods used for the commercial conversion of ilmenite to TiO2. In the proposed project, the progressive changes in the structure and composition of ilmenite during weathering will be studied for the first time by high resolution and energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy as well as a range of ancillary analytical methods. Studies will be made on natural weathered ilmenite sand from Australia and India, on weathered profiles of an igneous ilmenite ore deposit in Finland, as well as on experimentally altered ilmenite.