An ESCA study of silicate minerals

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Using the ESCA technique, core binding energies for Fe, Mg, Al, Si, and O have been obtained for a number of well-characterized silicate minerals. Surprisingly, we find no significant difference in binding energy between Fe 2+ and Fe 3+ in these silicates. O ls line widths for minerals with only one type of oxygen are generally narrower than those containing more than one type of oxygen, and there is a small difference in Al 2p binding energy for Al in four coordination and Al in six coordination. Apart from these differences, all other binding energies and line widths appear to be insensitive to chemical and structural changes.