Скачать или смотреть Technique probes how mineral soaks up iron

Researchers used a challenging imaging technique to trace chemical reactions in a common iron mineral. ↓↓More info and references below↓↓

Minerals in the soil under our feet constantly undergo chemical reactions. But we still don’t understand exactly how many of those interactions happen. Now, researchers have used the imaging technique atom probe tomography to study the way the mineral goethite interactswith its surroundings. Goethite is abundant in soil and is a major component of rust. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researchers found that tracer iron atoms didn’t merely stick to the surface of goethite; they also penetrated more than 3 nm into the mineral structure, concentrating at “hot spots,” where there were flaws in the material. The scientists hope that knowledge like this could one day lead to a better understanding of how goethite can be used to bind heavy metals in soil, decontaminating it.

Read more:

Visualizing the iron atom exchange front in the Fe(II)-catalyzed recrystallization of goethite by atom probe tomography | PNAS
https://www.pnas.org/content/early/20...

Microscopy method goes deep | C&EN
https://cen.acs.org/articles/92/i41/M...

Atomic imaging turns 50 | C&EN
https://cen.acs.org/articles/83/i48/A...

Music:
“Loopster” by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under CC BY 3.0.

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