Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by FERRAGE, E. Articles by MARTIN, F. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Structure of the {001} talc surface as seen by atomic force microscopy

¹ Department of Mineralogy, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK
² CEMES, UPR 8011 CNRS, 29 rue Jeanne Marvig, F-31055 Toulouse Cedex 4, France
³ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 34 and N. Charles streets, Baltimore MD 21218, USA
⁴ HydrASA, UMR 6532 CNRS-Université de Poitiers, 40 avenue du Recteur Pineau, F-86022 Poitiers Cedex, France
⁵ LMTG, UMR 5563 CNRS-Université Paul Sabatier-IRD, Observatoire Midi-Pyrenees, 14 avenue Edouard Belin, F-31400 Toulouse, France
⁶ Environmental Geochemistry Group, LGIT, UMR 5559 CNRS-Université Joseph Fourier, BP53, F-38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
⁷ Talc de Luzenac S.A., BP 1162, F-31036 Toulouse Cedex, France
⁸ LASEH, HydrASA, UMR 6532 CNRS-Université de Limoges, 123 avenue Albert Thomas, F-87000 Limoges, France

^* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed : E-mail: e.ferrage{at}nhm.ac.uk

The surface structure of a centimetre sized crystal of talc from the Trimouns deposit (Ariége, France) was imaged by atomic force microscopy. The direct image shows detailed characteristics of clay tetrahedral surfaces. The unit-cell dimensions obtained using atomic force microscopy (a_or = 5.47± 0.28 and b_or = 9.48 ± 0.28 Å) are found to be slightly higher, with a higher uncertainty, than those obtained using X-ray diffraction (a_or = 5.288 ± 0.007 and b_or = 9.159 ± 0.010 Å) and selected-area electron diffraction (a_or = 5.32 ± 0.03 and b_or = 9.22 ± 0.05 Å). Talc has a quasi-ideal surface, free from strong structural distortion, as compared to most other clay minerals, and is unlikely to have surface relaxation. The observation, on the obtained image, of apparent cell-dimension enlargement is then more likely attributed to instrumental artefacts, also responsible for scattered values of unit-cell parameters, rather than related to any surface structural features. The interpretation of apparent changes in unit-cell dimensions in terms of structural features for other clay minerals, in which such structural deformations is common (micas, kaolinites and chlorites), should therefore be done with extreme care.

Key-words: talc, atomic-force microscopy, surface structure, X-ray diffraction, selected-area electron diffraction.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C. NKOUMBOU, F. VILLIERAS, O. BARRES, I. BIHANNIC, M. PELLETIER, A. RAZAFITIANAMAHARAVO, V. METANG, C. YONTA NGOUNE, D. NJOPWOUO, and J. YVON Physicochemical properties of talc ore from Pout-Kelle and Memel deposits (central Cameroon) Clay Minerals, June 1, 2008; 43(2): 317 - 337. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]