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

已知钛铁矿（FeTiO3）通过氧化和去除Fe而经历风化，以形成从钛铁矿到假金红石（Fe2Ti3O9）的连续系列的组合物，并且随着进一步风化，到白辉石。钛铁矿在原子尺度上的风化细节尚未完全了解。了解蚀变机制在所有化学风化过程中都很重要，对于钛铁矿而言，风化过程中的化学变化决定了将钛铁矿商业转化为TiO 2的加工方法。在拟议的项目中，将首次通过高分辨率和能量过滤透射电子显微镜以及一系列辅助分析方法研究钛铁矿在风化过程中结构和成分的逐步变化。将对澳大利亚和印度的自然风化钛铁矿砂、芬兰的一个火成钛铁矿存款的风化剖面以及实验蚀变钛铁矿进行研究。

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.