Impact of clay microstructure and mass absorption coefficient on the quantitative mineral identification by XRD analysis

Quantitative mineral evaluation of clayey soils is an essential step to provide the reliable soil recognition and behaviour. In this paper the application of the four current XRD methods for mineral quantification purposes is experimentally reviewed for clayey soils. The problems involved in clay mineral evaluation based on the direct use of peak intensity or areas under the peak are addressed. In addition, several mistakes induced by the application of only the major reflection lines of clay minerals for this purposes have been cited. Finally, a method for XRD quantitative mineral evaluation was presented in this paper. By validating the proposed method, a very good agreement was observed between the computed and the real quantity of each mineral present in the series of artificial samples. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V All rights reserved.