GSECARS Scientists Continue to Decode Moon's Mysteries 50 Years Later

Celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Argonne explores its early lunar research as it anticipates studies at the Advanced Photon Source of pristine moon rocks from the final lunar landing missions.

Click Here to Learn More

Tomography at 13 BMD

A. Herring, OSU, uses tomography at 13 BMD to quantify pore scale trapping and to analyze how mechanisms affect the efficiency of capillary trapping of CO2 in saline aquifers.

Learn more about GSECARS

What Diamond Impurities Tell Us About Earth's Mantle

Pockets of water may lay deep below Earth’s surface.

Find Out More

X-ray diffraction patterns from a diamond anvil cell.

X-ray diffraction is the most powerful technique for crystal structure determination. From left to right, patterns from a single crystal, polychrystalline, nano-cyrstalline and amorphous crystals.

Learn More

High Pressure X-ray Tomographic Microscopy Module

The HPXTM module helps researchers study the texture change of their sample under extreme pressure and temperature conditions by collecting in-situ HP/HT 3D x-ray tomographic images.

Explore

GSECARS Outreach

GSECARS hosts experiments at 13 IDE for high school students in the Exemplary Student Research Program (ESRP) representing local area high schools.

GSECARS Outreach

GSECARS is a national user facility for frontier research in the earth sciences using synchrotron radiation at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory.

GSECARS provides earth scientists with access to the high-brilliance hard x-rays from this third-generation synchrotron light source. All principal synchrotron-based analytical techniques in demand by earth scientists are being brought to bear on earth science problems:

High-pressure/high-temperature crystallography and spectroscopy using the diamond anvil cell
High-pressure/high-temperature crystallography and imaging using the large-volume press
Powder, single crystal and interface diffraction
Inelastic x-ray scattering
X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy
X-ray fluorescence microprobe analysis
Microtomography

Research Techniques

X-Ray Microprobe and Spectroscopy

Interface, Surface Studies & Powder Diffraction

High Pressure / High Temperature Diamond Anvil Cell

High Pressure / High Temperature Large Volume Press

Tomography

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

► M. Cil, J. Schabelski, A. Packman, and G. Buscarnera, “A Miniaturized Testing Apparatus to Study the Chemo-Mechanics of Porous Media,” Geotechnical Testing Journal 43 https://doi.org/10.1520/GTJ20190031.

► Terzano, R., Denecke, M., Falkenberg, G., et al. (2019). Recent advances in analysis of trace elements in environmental samples by X-ray based techniques (IUPAC Technical Report). Pure and Applied Chemistry, 91(6), pp. 1029-1063. DOI :10.1515/pac-2018-0605

► Shearer,C.K., Bell, A.S., Herd, C.D.K., Burger, P.V., Provencio, P., Sharp, Z.D., Papike, J.J., The Northwest Africa 8159 (NWA 8159) Martian Meteorite Part 2. Spinel-orthopyroxene intergrowths. A record of fO2 and crust-basalt interactions, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Volume 258, 2019, Pages 242_257, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2019.05.034.

► Qin,F., Wu, X., Qin, S., Zhang, D., Prakapenka, V.B., Jacobsen, S.D., Pressure-induced dehydration of dioptase: A single-crystal X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy study, (2019) Comptes Rendus Geoscience, Volume 351, Issues 2–3, 121-128, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crte.2018.07.007.

► Zhang, D., Hu, Y., Xu, J., et al. (2019). High-pressure behavior of liebenbergite: The most incompressible olivine-structured silicate. American Mineralogist, 104(4), pp. 580-587., from doi:10.2138/am-2019-6680

► E-Wen Huang, Chih-Ming Lin, Jenh-Yih Juang^, Yao-Jen Chang, Yuan-Wei Chang, Chan-Sheng Wu, Che-Wei Tsai, An-Chou Yeh^d, Sean R. Shieh Ching-Pao Wang, Yu-Chun Chuang, Yen-Fa Liao, Dongzhou Zhang, Tony Huang, Tu-Ngoc Lam^a, Yi-Hung Chen. (2019). Deviatoric Deformation Kinetics in High Entropy Alloy under Hydrostatic Compression, J Alloys and Compounds 792 : 116.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2019.03.349

► Xu, J., Zhang, D., Fan, D., Wu, X., Shi, F., Zhou, W. (2019) Compressional behavior of natural eclogitic zoisite by synchrotron X-ray single-crystal diffraction to 34 GPa. Phys Chem Minerals. 46 (3):333.https://doi.org/10.1007/s00269-018-1006-6

► Yong, T., Dera, P., Zhang, D., (2019). Single-crystal X-ray diffraction of grunerite up to 25.6 GPa: a new high-pressure clinoamphibole polymorph. Phys Chem Minerals. 46 (3): 215. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00269-018-0999-1

► Hao, M., Zhang, J. S., Pierotti, C. E., Ren, Z., & Zhang, D. ( 2019). High‐pressure single‐crystal elasticity and thermal equation of state of omphacite and their implications for the seismic properties of eclogite in the Earth’s interior. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 124, 2368– 2377. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JB016964

► Gualda, G.A.R., Gravely, D.M., Hollman, B., Pamukcu, A.S., Begue, F., Ghiorso, M.S., Deering, C.D., (2018) Climbing the crustal ladder : Magma storage-depth evolution dueing a volvcanic flare-up. Sci. Adv. 4, eaap 7567 DOI : 10.1126/sciadv.aap7567

► Desmau, M., Gelabert, A., Levard, C., Ona-Nguema, G., Vidal, V., Stubbs, J.E., Eng, P.J., Benedetti, M.F. (2018) Dynamics of silver nanoparticles at the solution/biofilm/mineral interface. Environ. Sci.: Nano. 5: 2394-2405. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8EN00331A

► X. Lai, F. Zhu, J. Liu, D. Zhang, Y. Hu, G. J. Finkelstein, P. Dera, B. Chen; The high-pressure anisotropic thermoelastic properties of a potential inner core carbon-bearing phase, Fe₇C₃, by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. American Mineralogist ; 103 (10): 1568–1574. doi: https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2018-6527

GSECARS Benchtop SEM

GSECARS now has a JEOL Neoscope 6000PLUS scanning electron microscope available to GSECARS and APS users in support of beamline experiments. Click here for more info.

GSECARS Laser Lab

Users interested in using the Raman System or Micromanipulator,
Click here for more info.

Science Highlights

The multi-anvil, large-volume high-pressure facility at the bending magnet beamline (13-BM-D) runs a unique setup permitting an unusually wide range of high-pressure and high-temperature experiments combined with X-rays and other in-situ probing techniques. Here we provide a detailed description of the current large-volume press (LVP) setup at 13-BM-D, including hardware, software, and all experimental capabilities. Click

Phase transitions beyond post-perovskite in NaMgF₃ to 160 GPa

The high-pressure behavior of NaMgF₃ is of interest due to its role as a low-pressure analog for phase transitions in the MgSiO₃ system. In this work, we have used the diamond anvil cell and synchrotron X-ray diffraction techniques to study structural transitions in NaMgF₃ to 1.6 Mbars. Our work has identified a sequence of high-pressure phases beyond post-perovskite in this ABX₃ system. Click

Here, we have combined X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure (XANES) spectroscopy and μ-X-ray Fluorescence (μ-XRF) imaging to map the speciation and abundance of sulfur in carbonate petrographic thin sections in Upper Ordovician carbonates from Anticosti Island, Canada and early Silurian carbonates from Gotland, Sweden, across multiple depositional facies. The detection and characterization of both inorganic sulfur and organic sulfur compounds provides a platform to understand early processes of biomineralization. This approach will broaden our understanding of the source of inorganically bound sulfate in ancient carbonates, as well as the effect of depositional setting and diagenesis on CAS incorporation, (re)mobilization, and ultimate abundance in sedimentary carbonates. Click

Solubility and speciation of iron in hydrothermal fluids

Here, we conducted hydrothermal diamond-anvil cell experiments using synchrotron-radiation micro-XRF and XANES analyses as well as Raman spectroscopy, in situ at hydrothermal temperatures and pressures, to characterize the solubility and speciation of iron in fluids buffered by a variety of mineral assemblages. Click

Happenings

GSECARS congratulates NSF’s ChemMATCARS with their recent successes in securing two NSF awards for the renewal funding of 5-year operations and the construction of a canted undulator beamline.
GSECARS hosts a tour of Sector 13 for attendees from the 25th International Congress on X-ray Optics and Microanalysis Conference (ICXOM-25).

Matt Newville and Tony Lanzirotti welcome Mauro Rovezzi from Centre National de La Recherche Scientific (CNRS). He will be working with them to commission the emission spectroscopy system at 13 IDE.