Mssbauer Spectroscopy of Environmental Materials and Their Industrial Utilization

In the course of using environmental materials, man has oftenmodified them, thereby creating a multitude of new products, but alsoa variety of pernicious by-products. Many branches of the basic andapplied sciences, including such diverse disciplines as physics, chemistry, mineralogy, geology, agronomy and engineering, have beenconcerned with the characterization of environmental materials andtheir modifications in the course of their utilization.

In studiesrelating to these maters, use is often made of physical techniquessuch as X-ray diffraction and various spectroscopic techniques. One ofthe most powerful of these is Mossbauer spectroscopy."Mossbauer Spectroscopy of Environmental Materials and their""Industrial Utilization" provides a description of the propertiesof materials formed on the earth's surface, their synthetic analogswhere applicable, and the products of their modifications in thecourse of natural processes, such as weathering, or in industrialprocessing as reflected in their Mossbauer spectra.

Particularemphasis is placed on the way in which these processes can be observedand elucidated through the use of Mossbauer spectroscopy.The first chapter covers the basic theory of the Mossbauer effectand Chapters 2 and 3 deal with the nuts and bolts of experimentalMossbauer spectroscopy. The principles of these first threechapters, illustrated with many case studies, are applied to differentareas of interest in Chapters 4 through 12.The book is directed to a broad audience ranging from graduatestudents in environmental sciences or chemical engineering with littleor no expertise in Mossbauer spectroscopy to researchers fromother disciplines who are familiar with this technique butwish tolearn more about possible applications to environmental materials andissues.