Study of Heat Effect on the Composition of Dunes Sand of Ouargla (Algeria) Using XRD and FTIR

Abstract

The spectra of x-ray diffraction (XRD) and infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) shows that the dunes sand of Ouargla’s region consists naturally of crystalline structures of α-quartz and gypsum, as well as other uncrystallized compounds with low concentrations like kaolinite and hematite, in addition to some organic compounds. The sand heating process at temperatures between 200 and 1200 °C affects its composition. By heating at 200 °C crystalline phases of anhydrite and bassanite appear due to the continuing loss of water from the gypsum. All the gypsum transforms into anhydrite, and the kaolinite transforms into metakaolin because of the breaking of the OH bond, producing water vapor by heating in the range of 400–800 °C. The heating at 1000 °C disassembles the kaolinite into aluminium-silicon and cristobalite, and leads to the emergence of a new crystalline phase related to wollastonite resulting from the start of a reaction between the anhydride and the quartz. Heating at 1200 °C leads to the disappearance of all the anhydrite because of its interaction with the quartz, producing the wollastonite and the release of sulfur dioxide SO2 and oxygen O2, in addition to the increase of the cristobalite proportion because of the disintegration of all the kaolinite into mullite and cristobalite, or the transformation of quartz phase into cristobalite. Also occuring is an interaction between the hematite and the quartz producing the ferrosilite characterized by its green color.