Contact person:
- Lab manager: Dr. Reinhard Kleeberg,
- Kristin Unger (M.Sc.) and Beata Heide (Dipl.-Krist.)
(see pictures from left to right)
The mineralogical laboratory is divided into preparation laboratory (Brennhausgasse 14, room: ground floor 31) and measurement laboratory (Brennhausgasse 14, room: ground floor 35).
Our expertise lies in the field of clay mineralogy and qualitative and quantitative phase analysis (using the Rietveld method). The image below shows an X-ray diffractogram with a standard Rietveld fit for a clay fraction (tertiary clay from Liebertwolkwitz, Saxony).
The quality of our work has already been recognised several times with 1st to 3rd place in the Reynolds Cup. Now we only support the project organisationally.
- 1st place: 2002 and 2014
- 2nd place: 2008
- 3rd place: 2006, 2010 and 2012
Preparation laboratory
The following equipment is used in our processing laboratory :
- Jaw crusher: fast and efficient coarse and pre-crushing of brittle rocks, slag or building materials
- McCrone mill: Grinding and mixing of wet or dry materials with a final fineness < 10 µm
- Powderisette: Homogenisation of wet or dry materials
- Table-top cooling centrifuge: Separation of solids and liquids for, among other thingsfine fractions in clay mineralogy
(see pictures from left to right)
Measuring laboratory
Our measurement laboratory has 4 X-ray diffractometers. The device with the highest measurement utilisation is the XRD ORION Comet P2.
X-ray diffractometer ORION Comet P2:
- Commissioning 25.03.2021
- Funded by the German Research Foundation under INST 267/163-1 FUGG
- Powder diffraction and measurement of texture preparations in Bragg-Brentano geometry
- Company: XRD Eigenmann GmbH SEIFERT Analytical X-ray
- Theta-theta goniometer
- Goniometer radius: 260 mm
- X-ray tube with cobalt anode (Co-Kα radiation)
- Detector: Semiconductor detector Meteor E/0D (point detector) and Meteor 1D (line detector)
- Sample changer: 12-fold for powder cuvettes or compact samples
- Phase identification: programme Analyze (Seifert-FPM) using the PDF-4+ database (output: annual update)
- Phase quantification with Rietveld method: Programme BGMN/AUTOQUAN (GE Seifert) and PROFEX (Nicola Döbelin)
Other X-ray diffractometers in the Mineralogical Laboratory are
- XRD 3000 TT,
- XRD 7 and
- HZG 4
(see images from left to right)
Courses (OPAL)
Bachelor Geology/ Mineralogy:
- X-ray structure and phase analysis (in the module Mineralogical investigation methods)
- Crystal Measurement (in the module Mineralogical-Crystallographic Laboratory Practical)
- Clay Mineralogy (in the module Applied Mineralogy I)
- Methods of geochemical-mineralogical analysis (in the module Introduction to Geochemistry)
Master Geosciences: