Applied clay mineralogy

Mining clay in the Westerwald region of Germany Source: BGR

The Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources advises government departments and the economy in the specialist area of clay mineralogy by means of specialist reports, publications, method development, its work on committees (Clay Club of OECD-NEA, membership of the Expert Committee on Raw Materials of the Deutsche Keramische Gesellschaft (German Ceramics Society) and the scientific co-ordination of specialist conferences (Clays in natural and engineered barriers for radioactive waste confinement, March 2015 in Brussels).

A further task of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources is using modern, research-level analytical techniques to characterise and
comprehensively quantify clay minerals and the accompanying substances and their application in new markets.

Scientists at the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources are developing and standardising methods in various areas:

• mineralogy (XRD, Rietveld calculation, thermoanalysis-mass spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy)
• electron optics (atmospheric SEM)
• material sciences (surface analysis, N₂-BET)
• colloid chemistry (layer charge density, cation exchange capacity)
• soil physics (grain size distribution)
• engineering geology (water uptake, swelling, shrinkage).

The Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources is examining the effect of fabric alterations on the mechanical stability of clay stones and, in cooperation with international partners, for example at Mont Terri, is checking the suitability of clay materials for use in the final storage of radioactive materials, for example at ÄSPÖ.