High-resolution imaging of soil colloids in aqueous media with a compact soft X-ray microscope

Abstract

Colloids play an important role when describing parameters of and processes within soils, sediments or aquifers due to their abundance and their high specific surface area. It is of great importance to visualize the morphology of the structures formed by these particles as close as possible to environmental conditions. With X-ray microscopy colloids from the environment can be imaged directly in aqueous media with high spatial resolution. We demonstrate the first use of a compact laboratory x-ray microscope for studies of colloids from the environment, namely aqueous suspensions of clays and soils. The microscope is based on a high-brightness laser-produced-plasma X-ray source, a multilayer mirror and diffractive optics. The experiments show that such compact X-ray microscopes are reaching the image quality and operational maturity to make a significant impact in fields like environmental sciences.