The Mineralogy Laboratory Analytical Services
The laboratory offers a wide range of analytical services on soils, rocks and a range of other materials:
- Identification and semi-quantitative analysis of crystalline mineral assemblages in soil and rock samples by X-ray diffraction (XRD)
- Differential thermal analysis (DTA) of soils, rocks and other materials. DTA is complementary to XRD and helps identify certain minerals
- Estimation of allophane and ferrihydrite content of soils
- Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of samples from ambient to 1500°C. Weight loss of a sample is recorded as it is heated at a constant rate
- Estimation of percent kaolinite in a sample, using DTA and TGA
- Estimation of percent gibbsite in a sample, using DTA and TGA
- Simultaneous measurement of heat flow, by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), weight loss by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and structural changes by differential thermal analysis (DTA), of a mineral when heated from ambient to 1500°C
- Identification of mineral concretions in animal organs calculi.