Quantitative determination of chrysotile in massive serpentinites using DTA: Implications for asbestos determinations
-
C. Viti
,
C. Giacobbe
Abstract
There is increasing concern about the health hazard of asbestos from natural geologic deposits such as greenstones [natural occurring asbestos (NOA)]. Therefore, quantitative determination of the chrysotile asbestos content within massive serpentinites is a recurrent requirement of recent asbestos-inherent law regulations, due to the possible health hazard associated with the release of chrysotile fibers. Unfortunately, the obtainment of accurate and precise quantitative figures of the actual chrysotile content is strongly complicated by typical serpentinite textures, consisting of fineto- ultrafine intergrowths of fibrous and non-fibrous serpentine minerals, often difficult to identify by conventional methods, such as X-ray diffraction or microanalytical approaches.
In this paper, we propose a reliable and straightforward method for the quantitative determination of chrysotile asbestos within bulk massive serpentinites, based on thermal analysis data and, specifically, on the distinctive thermal behavior of chrysotile, lizardite, and antigorite during dehydroxylation at 500-800 °C. Deconvolution processing of DTA endothermic signals in the dehydroxylation temperature range revealed good linear correlation between peak area ratios and chrysotile content, for both lizardite + chrysotile and antigorite + chrysotile samples. The DTA correlation curves have been used to determine the chrysotile content in two test serpentinites, revealing surprisingly high-chrysotile content. This novel method is of vast importance as it represents one of the most promising tools for chrysotile quantitative determinations in massive serpentinites, providing unbiased and accurate responses to recent asbestos-related law requirements.
© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- Needs and opportunities in mineral evolution research
- Rutile inclusions in quartz crystals record decreasing temperature and pressure during the exhumation of the Su-Lu UHP metamorphic belt in Donghai, East China
- A first-principles study of the phase transition from Holl-I to Holl-II in the composition KAlSi3O8
- Sejkoraite-(Y), a new member of the zippeite group containing trivalent cations from Jáchymov (St. Joachimsthal), Czech Republic: Description and crystal structure refinement
- Thermoelastic and thermodynamic properties of plagioclase feldspars from thermal expansion measurements
- Quantitative determination of chrysotile in massive serpentinites using DTA: Implications for asbestos determinations
- In situ observation of the crystallization pressure induced by halite crystal growth in a microfluidic channel
- Microstructures of the larval shell of a pearl oyster, Pinctada fucata, investigated by FIB-TEM technique
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- The effect of Fe on olivine H2O storage capacity: Consequences for H2O in the martian mantle
- Kinetics of thermal transformation of partially dehydroxylated pyrophyllite
- Dehydration of the natural zeolite goosecreekite CaAl2Si6O16·5H2O upon stepwise heating: A single-crystal and powder X-ray study
- Incorporation mechanisms of Ta and Nb in zircon and implications for pegmatitic systems
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- Calibrating Ti concentrations in quartz for SIMS determinations using NIST silicate glasses and application to the TitaniQ geothermobarometer
- Crystal structure of Na3Fe(SO4)3: A high-temperature product (∼400 °C) of sideronatrite [Na2Fe(SO4)2OH⋅3H2O]
- Evidence for boron incorporation into the serpentine crystal structure
- Structure refinement of Ag-free heyrovskýite from Vulcano (Aeolian Islands, Italy)
- Microtextures, microchemistry, and mineralogy of basaltic glass alteration, Jeju Island, Korea, with implications for elemental behavior
- Orientation of channel carbonate ions in apatite: Effect of pressure and composition
- Thermoelastic property and high-pressure stability of Fe7C3: Implication for iron-carbide in the Earth’s core
- Yttriaite-(Y): The natural occurrence of Y2O3 from the Bol’shaya Pol’ya River, Subpolar Urals, Russia
- Identification and characterization of nanosized tripuhyite in soil near Sb mine tailings
- Letter. High-pressure I2/c-P21/c phase transformation in SrAl2Si2O8 feldspar
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