Metrics details micro-focus time-resolved laser-induced luminescence spectroscopy (µTRLFS) is presented to investigate heterogeneous systems like granite (mainly consisting of quartz µTRLFS is a spatially-resolved upgrade of conventional TRLFS which allows point-by-point analysis of single minerals by reducing the beam size of the analytic laser beam to below the size of mineral grains This provides visualization of sorption capacity as well as speciation of a luminescent probe A thin-section of granitic rock from Eibenstock Germany was analyzed regarding its mineralogy with microprobe X-ray fluorescence (µXRF) and electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) it was reacted with 5.0 × 10−5 mol/L Eu3+ at pH 8.0 and uptake was quantified by autoradiography The results clearly show that the materials interact differently with Eu3+ and often even on one mineral grain different speciations can be found while the complexation strength is higher than on feldspar This may be indicative of adsorption only at surface defect sites in accordance with low hydration of the observed species The sorption of Eu3+ on those mineral components has been studied previously At a pH of 6.0 the formation of a second species is observed on both feldspar end members which was interpreted as hydrolysis of the first inner sphere sorption species A similar dissolution/complexation mechanism as described above for quartz has not been observed on feldspars batch studies of the whole system can only describe sorption behavior as an average and the relationship between mineral phase and Eu3+ species is lost The same problem arises for bulk spectroscopic studies It should also be taken into account that minerals for single mineral studies could have grown under different geological conditions than those in granite and that many batch studies use minerals altered by milling which will create surface topologies different from natural fractures An effect that may be more pronounced for some minerals soft micas with a preferential cleavage direction may be altered more strongly than harder quartz that sorption on all major components of granite and on granite itself is heterogeneous On feldspar multiple species could be identified within a wide range of lifetimes one regime of inner-sphere species with lifetimes above 110 µs and one regime of unidentifiable species with lifetimes below 110 µs On biotite the only detectable species was the Eu3+ aquoion These lifetime fingerprints of feldspar and biotite were also found on granite lifetime measurements only determine the presence of quenchers in Eu3+’s coordination shell and can only differentiate changes in the hydration shell of species More information about speciation would have to be obtained from the full luminescence spectra µTRLFS allows characterizing the speciation of Eu3+ (as well as other luminescent probes) in a single spot of ~30 µm This is possible due to the trace concentration sensitivity of the method due to the high luminescence intensity of Eu3+ and spectral detection range also means that measurements show very low background and luminescence intensity can be assigned to Eu3+ unambiguously While the spatial quantification of sorption processes is possible with many methods point-by-point speciation is a major advantage of µTRLFS Batch data of sorption experiment with 5 × 10–5 mol L−1 Eu3+ in 0.1 M NaCl on ground Eibenstock granite (S/L = 2 g/L) The four indicated zones are intended as a guide-to-the-eyes batch experiments are helpful in describing Eu3+ sorption quantitatively but fall short of describing the sorption process with regard to sorption modes or involved mineral phases Spatially-resolved spectroscopy measurements shall help revealing the speciation on each mineral at pH 8.0 in regime IV but surface precipitation is still of minor importance In order to be able to derive species – mineral associations from the spatially-resolved spectroscopic data first the mineral phase distribution in the ROI must be characterized Colorized mineral distribution of the ROI (a) with quartz (Qz) biotite (Bt) and biotite layer over quartz (Bt*) along with µXRF results for potassium (b) iron (c) and rubidium (d) whereas the red outlines indicate the grain boundaries at the surface of the sample and the red rectangle indicates the ROI used for µTRLFS measurements The two areas labelled as Qz* and Bt* are regions where two minerals are layered on top of each other. The layering can be characterized by µXRF (Fig. 2) due to its energy dependent sampling depth In the area labelled Qz* no K fluorescence signal is detectable the mineral below quartz contains both K+ and Rb+ due to its significantly higher energy (Rb Kα1 = 13,4 keV Kβ1 = 14,96 keV) relative to the K K-shell-transitions (Kα1 = 3,31 keV Because there is no detectable Fe fluorescence in this area Qz* must be a quartz layer on top of Alkali-feldspar In the Bt* region the K signal is homogeneously spread but with rising energy of the fluorescence signal (\({E}_{Rb} > {E}_{Fe} > {E}_{K}\)) Thin-section microscopy reveals that the underlying mineral is quartz The µTRLFS measurements yield maps of luminescence intensities and peak intensity ratios as well as luminescence lifetimes for selected spots for which the mineral composition was determined by µXRF and EPMA Map of total intensity of 7F1 and 7F2 emission bands (a) and map of ratio of 7F2/7F1 emission bands (b) with tagged regimes A–D and lifetimes (1–3) (red dots) the differences in sorption capacity are related to available sorption sites but not differences in sorption strength the luminescence intensity is distributed more homogeneously The luminescence intensity on Qz is significantly lower than on Alkali-fs indicating preferential Eu3+ sorption on feldspar that the peak ratios are actually the highest within the ROI A notable exception from the homogeneous distribution is area A At this boundary more Eu3+ is accumulated than on Qz and Bt themselves and the signal strength is of the same order of magnitude as on Alkali-fs the 7F2/7F1 peak ratio in A is lower than in D once again similar to Alkali-fs with values 7F2/7F1 ≈ 3.0–4.0 The grain boundary between Qz and Bt* at area C does not show a similar behavior Biotite itself shows very low luminescence except for area B on Bt* Due to the low signal to noise ratio the peak ratio could not be evaluated B exhibits the strongest luminescence on Bt and Bt* slightly lower than on Alkali-fs and much lower than on Qz in area D The grain boundaries between quartz and feldspar and feldspar and biotite do not noticeably deviate from the behavior of the bulk mineral grains Our elemental maps of this region do not indicate the presence of Fe or other transition metal quenchers around (1) so we tentatively assign the short lifetime to hydrolyzed surface complexes The Kα line of Mn and Lα line of Eu overlap and other edges were not accessible in our experiments A better energy resolution circumvents this problem for EPMA but the method was not sensitive to the very small amount of Eu3+ that is adsorbed on the material In our experiments no significant Eu signals could be detected Our attempts to independently quantify Eu3+ uptake were more successful using autoradiography with 152Eu autoradiography was performed after μTRLFS experiments and revealed additional topography on the surface and led to higher sorption in the mapped area than outside of it (see EA) It should be noted that repeated μTRLFS measurements in the same spot produced spectra with very good reproducibility indicating that the topographical changes occur on a small scale and do not significantly affect adsorbed Eu3+ until the sample is re-submerged in Eu3+ containing solution Autoradiography image of a larger region on the same sample with underlying image of thin-section microscopy (a) and standalone (b) with red outlines of each mineral phase at the surface (Qz = quartz The autoradiography map confirms the trends observed with μTRLFS: Eu3+ sorption is significantly higher (3–10×) on feldspar than on quartz it also shows that biotite is intermediate between the two other minerals Quartz areas (Qz) show the lowest intensity (<200 cts) with a homogeneous distribution The biotite in this ROI can be divided into two areas Bt1 has a high intensity between 1000 and 2000 counts which is distributed relatively heterogeneous while sorption on Bt2 is more homogeneous but of lower quantity with intensities of around 500 cts accumulation of Eu3+ on biotite grain boundaries is noticeable On feldspar (Fs) sorption occurs more heterogeneously with intensities ranging from 500 up to 2000 cts The same relative behavior of the three major components is observed over the whole sample with few hot spots with intensities of up to 40000 counts The first results from spatially-resolved time resolved laser luminescence spectroscopy (μTRLFS) reveal the sorption behavior of Eu3+ on a natural granite sample from Eibenstock The results highlight the differences between the mineral components in both sorption capacity and strength of the surface complexation results demonstrate that not only heterogeneities like grain boundaries show diverse sorption behavior in comparison to the adjoining minerals but even within one mineral grain the sorption behavior varies Autoradiography qualitatively confirms the quantitative Eu3+ sorption measured with µTRLFS and adds information in the case of biotite Quartz has the least amount of adsorbed Eu3+ while feldspar shows a 5–10 × higher sorption capacity Sorption on biotite is intermediate in quantity and appears to depend greatly on grain orientation A possible explanation may be found in the differing accessibility of interlayer spaces for preferred sorption For both grains we observed preferential adsorption close to mineral grain boundaries of biotite Ternary complexes can satisfactorily explain the strong ligand field observed in the 7F2/7F1 ratio distribution but it is unclear why their distribution would vary so strongly from pixel to pixel Lifetime measurements confirm the presence of a surface complex with a large number of replaced water molecules either through multiple bonds to the surface or through bonds to an additional ligand from the solution A second shorter lifetime may once again indicate hydrolysis of the surface complexes The grain boundary between Qz and Bt (A) exhibits distinct sorption properties sorption is significantly higher than on either of the adjacent mineral grains but the complexation strength (7F2/7F1 ~ 3) is lower than in the maxima on Qz A molecular level interpretation is difficult as obviously no reference data can exist for such a mineral grain boundary The lifetimes indicate that part of the adsorbed Eu3+ is present as aquo ions The other lifetime has a too large error for any reliable interpretation but indicates complete or near-complete loss of hydration A possible interpretation would be the incorporation of Eu3+ into biotite interlayers that may be accessible more easily here at the grain boundary Such an interlayer exchange could occur as hydrated ions at frayed edges of the muscovite with subsequent dehydration upon progression into the interlayer The determination of the sorption properties of biotite are complicated by its high Fe content which leads to almost complete quenching of Eu3+ luminescence over wide areas on Bt and Bt* EPMA shows a homogeneous distribution of Fe at areas B and C so that decreased iron content cannot be responsible for the higher luminescence intensity in these areas The homogeneous iron distribution on Bt and Bt* also makes the presence of another mineral at the surface unlikely as EPMA’s penetration depth is only about 3 µm An even thinner film of another mineral would be expected to be removed entirely during polishing The heterogeneity in Eu3+’s distribution can also be recognized in autoradiography results where two biotite areas with different crystal orientations show a starkly different sorption behavior We can assume that the same is the case in our µTRLFS measurements Key for a high uptake capacity of Eu3+ by biotite is then uptake of Eu3+ into the interlayer of biotite by ion exchange If the layers are parallel to the sample surface Eu3+ cannot enter the interlayers strongly affects the amount of Eu3+ sorbed the Bt grain would have near-parallel surface layer orientation while in the Bt* region the layers are more angled A similar effect could also be related to other surface defects which could also be observed in areas with particularly strong ablation which enables the method to quantify sorption and determine the speciation responsible for the uptake which give a direct measure of the luminescent probe’s hydration state In principle these measurements could also be performed on every single point measurement time considerations make select measurements at points of interest the better current option these measurements are performed with trace amounts of adsorbed Eu3+ which could not even be detected by other microprobe techniques The results clearly show how differently the various minerals interact with Eu3+ While feldspar has a very high sorption capacity and may well have been disregarded for the sake of e.g surface complexation or reactive transport modelling the added information from the 7F2/7F1 spectral intensity ratio reveals that bonding is very strong Immobilization of Eu3+ on quartz may then well be a significant retention process as it would be expected to be most efficient at low concentrations Another interesting observation is the distinct sorption properties of a mineral grain boundary which could not have been determined in single phase Even mineral grain orientation appears to have a significant effect on the uptake capacity as autoradiography demonstrates in the case of biotite structure should be subject for additional research This novel technique should prove to develop into a valuable analytical tool for systems where heterogeneous behavior is expected or cannot be excluded and thus help to reduce the experimental gap between well characterizable but highly idealized model systems and highly relevant natural formations where molecular level information is often unobtainable The Eibenstock granite sample was obtained as a massive rock from a former uranium mine in Erzgebirge, Germany. A combination of powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence analysis (XFA) shows, that the Eibenstock granite mainly consists of quartz, K-feldspar, biotite and muscovite (Table 2) The minerals are not distributed homogeneously with muscovite occurring as big shards and other typical grain sizes ~50 µm The rock sample was processed in two ways: for batch experiments a part of the rock was ground in an agate mill and sieved to grain sizes below 63 µm a part of the rock was cut into pieces of 23 × 23 × 10 mm³ Polishing (Logitech polisher) was performed with a suspension of diamonds 1 µm and 3 µm in diameter The sample was washed with ethanol and deionized water (MilliQ before the reaction with the Eu3+ solution the milled granite was immersed in a solution of 5 × 10−5 mol L−1 Eu3+ and 0.1 mol L−1 NaCl with a solid-to-liquid ratio (S/L) of 2 g/l We prepared 30 samples with pH values in the range of 0.8 to 11.5 The pH values of each sample were adjusted daily over one week with HCl and NaOH Afterwards the suspension was centrifuged for 30 minutes at 5300 rpm (≙ 6800 × g) The europium concentration of the supernatant was measured in triplicate by ICP-MS and the concentration of the europium stock solution was measured 12-fold The percentage of sorbed Eu3+ was then calculated based on the measured concentrations The error of [Eu3+]sorbed was calculated using the statistical errors of the ICP-MS measurements and the error of pH measurement was set to ±0.1 pH units The thin-section sample was brought into contact with the Eu3+ solution in a custom-made PTFE flow cell (see Electronic Annex) The solution was pumped through the cell with a volumetric flow rate of 30 mL h−1 over the sample surface The cross section of the flow cell at the sample was 28 mm² remaining Eu3+ solution was flushed off the sample surface to prevent precipitation of Eu3+ solids The same sample was used for microprobe X-ray fluorescence (µXRF) For autoradiography measurements the thin-section was additionally set in a watch glass filled with 15 ml of a solution of the same solution a radioactive isotope of Eu that decays by electron capture or β- decay with a half-life of 13.5 y The sample side was faced to the solution to avoid sorption on the backside which would produce background and distort the autoradiography image the sample was once more washed with deionized water A region of interest (ROI) on the thin-section sample was chosen by optical microscopy The area should contain all three main mineral constituents: quartz The µXRF measurements were conducted at the INE-Beamline at the KIT Synchrotron light source in Karlsruhe, Germany52 The X-ray photon beam had an incident energy of 18 keV well above the K- or L-edges of the mineral constituents as well as Eu3+ The incident photon flux was tracked by an ionization chamber to normalize the fluorescence intensity maps The beam was focused to a spot of approximately 25 µm (FWHM) in diameter using polycapillary half-lenses and the sample was scanned in a 10 µm grid Because the measurement was performed in air no elements with atomic numbers below that of argon (Z = 18) were detectable of the Hitachi Vortex VX60 SDD detector under the experimental conditions (high count rate line purity not always given) was determined to be (3.3 ± 0.1)% by evaluating the X-ray fluorescence peaks between 6.4 keV and 14.9 keV The determined spectral resolution is slightly worse than that of a Fe calibrating source (FWHM of the Mn K fluorescence line is 140 eV – 150 eV) fluorescence peaks will overlap if their energy is too close to each other which hinders the unambiguous identification of some elements In this case this is of importance for the identification of Eu (Lα1 = 5,849 keV which overlaps with the common impurity Mn (Kα1 = 5,900 keV Kβ1 = 6,492 keV) because their peaks FWHM (FWHM([K/L]α1) ≈ 0.19 keV FWHM([K/L]β1) ≈ 0.21 keV) is much higher than the distance between Eu and Mn fluorescence peaks (Δ[K/L]α1 = 0.051 keV So if both elements are present in one location it is not possible to distinguish them especially if one of the elements is present only in trace concentrations and the signal strength is low Neither the L-shell transitions of Mn (~640 eV) nor the Eu K-shell transitions could be used for distinguishing the elements as the beam energy was insufficient to reach Eu3+’s K-edge and attenuation in air becomes prohibitive at the low energy of Mn L-edges Scheme of the µTRLFS setup with dichroic mirror (DM) objective for focusing and collimating (O) focusing lens for the luminescence light (FL) UV-laser for excitation (purple) and emitted luminescence light (orange) The pulse energy was set to ~50 µJ by two crossable polarizers (Glan-Taylor polarizer This low excitation energy was intentionally chosen to minimize any destructive effects of the focused laser beam The signal was accumulated 200 times in each point resulting in a time of 10 seconds needed for each point The measurement of the whole map (1836 data points) needed approximately six hours including time for moving the sample For imaging the spatial distribution of the 152Eu sorption the granite thin-section was covered with a thin plastic foil and placed onto a BAS-IP MS imaging plate (GE Lifesciences) The plate was exposed for up to 60 min and the image was read out with a spatial resolution of 10 µm using an Amersham Typhoon biomolecular imager The actual spatial resolution of the obtained autoradiography images is lower than the theoretical value because of the isotropic emission of radiation from each point EPMA measurements were conducted at the Helmholtz-Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology with a JEOL JXA 8530 F (JEOL Ltd The setup consists of a field emission electron gun five wavelength dispersive spectrometers (WDS) which are equipped with different analyzer crystals and an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) The sample was scanned in a 4 µm grid with a beam diameter of 3 µm with an acceleration voltage of 20 kV and a dwell time of 200 ms Element distribution mappings were recorded for V (PETL analyzer) Y (TAP analyzer) and Eu (LIFH analyzer) with the WDS EDS was used to get the elemental distribution of the main matrix elements Na By using WDS detection for Eu and Mn it is possible to distinguish between both elements even though their fluorescence energy is close to each other The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request Mineral–Water Interface Reactions of Actinides Mineralogie - Eine Einführung in die spezielle Mineralogie Law on the search and selection of a site for a high-level radioactive waste repository (StandAG) A methodology to constrain the parameters of a hydrogeological discrete fracture network model for sparsely fractured crystalline rock exemplified by data from the proposed high-level nuclear waste repository site at Forsmark High-level 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J. et al. XCOM: Photon Cross Section Database, http://physics.nist.gov/xcom (2010) Europium retention onto clay minerals from 25 to 150 °C: Experimental measurements spectroscopic featuresand sorption modelling Europium speciation by time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence Distance between Metal-Binding Sites in Transferrin: Energy Transfer from Bound Terbium(III) to Iron(III) or Manganese(III) A Spectroscopic Characterization and Quantification of M(III)/Clay Mineral Outer-Sphere Complexes Using Eu3+ as an atomic probe to investigate the local environment in LaPO4–GdPO4 monazite end-members chemistry and isotopic ages of peninsular gneiss dharwar acid volcanic rocks and the chitradurga granite with special reference to the late archaean evolution of the karnataka craton The Distribution of Manganese and Iron between Ilmenite and Granitic Magma in the Osumi Peninsula REE composition of primary and altered feldspar from the mineralized alteration zone of alkaline intrusive rocks Partitioning of Eu and Sr between coexisting plagioclase and K-feldspar Spectroscopic Identification of Ternary Cm-Carbonate Surface Complexes New insight into Cm(III) interaction with kaolinite – Influence of mineral dissolution The INE-Beamline for actinide science at ANKA Lanthanide ion probes of structure in biology Laser-induced luminescence decay constants provide a direct measure of the number of metal-coordinated water molecules Luminescence study on determination of the hydration number of Cm(III) Download references This study is funded by Helmholtz Young Investigator Group “Structures and reactivity at the aqueous/mineral interface” (VH-NG-942) We acknowledge the KIT synchrotron light source for provision of the INE-Beamline instrumentation and would like to thank the KIT Institute for Beam Physics and Technology (IBPT) for operation of the storage ring Helmholtz-Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology for preparing the thin section and J Helmholtz-Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology for conducting the EPMA measurements Institute for Nuclear Waste Disposal (INE) conducted the µTRLFS and batch sorption experiments were responsible for the autoradiography measurements conceived the experiments and evaluated the data All authors contributed to and reviewed the manuscript The authors declare no competing interests Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42664-2 Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: a shareable link is not currently available for this article Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry (2024) Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science Crocuses are blooming in gardens and parks and even in the mountains the daytime temperatures are in double figures Sunny spring weather has had Saxony in its grip for days but the ski lifts are still running in the Erzgebirge There is still enough snow for skiing on the slopes in Oberwiesenthal as the operators explained when asked by dpa hardly anyone would believe it," enthuses Stefan Uhlmann from the Adlerfelsen ski resort in Eibenstock He wants to keep the ski slope open until March 16 Several school classes have registered over the next few days Some visitors make fun of the double-digit temperatures and ski in a T-shirt Skiers should be able to indulge in their hobby on the Fichtelberg for even longer The aim is to offer skiing until the end of March head of the Fichtelberg suspension railroad He hopes that there will be enough snow on the Himmelsleiter run at least until then The slopes will no longer be covered with new snow fewer skiers are now flocking to the slopes than in previous weeks The spring weather is probably luring many people into the garden or park the lifts in Altenberg will remain in operation "The slope conditions are better than in December." It becomes difficult when rain sets in "Then the ski season is quickly over," says Püschel The lift operators are satisfied with this year's season skiing has been possible without interruption since the opening in December They were able to compensate for the lack of natural snow with artificial snowmaking Fun is also on offer on the home stretch of the season: Next Saturday (March 15) Oberwiesenthal is hosting a nostalgia ski race Between 60 and 70 racers are expected to take to the start line with historical equipment this includes wooden skis with rope or leather strap bindings lace-up boots and ski clothing from past decades The participants do not need a lift - they have to walk up the slope © 2009 - 2025 DieSachsen.de | Alle Rechte vorbehalten | Entwickelt mit publizer in Sachsen Ihre Daten sind uns wichtig, und wir würden gerne Cookies verwenden, um Ihr unglaubliches Erlebniss auf DieSachsen.de weiter verbessern zu können. Send help right to the people and causes you care about Your donation is protected by the GoFundMe Giving Guarantee You do not have access to www.researchgate.net The site owner may have set restrictions that prevent you from accessing the site who has now been released into the wild near Eibenstock He spends most of his time where he was released from his transport box into the wild Lynx Anton is only hesitantly exploring his new home in the Westerzgebirge spends most of his time where he was released from his transport box last Monday He is behaving just as cautiously as the other two cougars Juno and Chapo after their release into the wild spokeswoman for the State Office for the Environment it can be assumed that he will steadily increase his radius Only a few hours after being released into the wild one-and-a-half-year-old Anton returned to his "release site" there were no signals from him because he was probably in a dead zone "As lynxes that were born and raised in an enclosure the animals have different requirements than the two female lynxes Nova and Alva that were captured in the Swiss Jura Anton still has to learn that his movements are no longer restricted by a fence and that he has to prey on his own," said Bernhardt His two conspecifics that have been released into the wild have succeeded in doing this Anton grew up in a large breeding enclosure in a Belgian zoo and has been prepared for his release into the wild over the past few months in the coordination enclosure of the wild cat village of Hütscheroda in Thuringia He had passed all the behavioral tests and health checks required for release into the wild Saxony plans to release 20 lynx into the wild by 2027 and breeding animals from zoos will be used three males (Kuder) and two cats have been released Saxony is the only federal state to reintroduce the endangered species The largest populations in Germany are in the Harz Mountains and the Bavarian Forest and we would like to use cookies to further improve your incredible experience at DieSachsen.de.