Contact person:
- Lab manager: Dr. Reinhard Kleeberg,
- Kristin Unger (M.Sc.) and Beata Heide (Dipl.-Krist.)
(see pictures from left to right)
The mineralogical laboratory is divided into preparation laboratory (Brennhausgasse 14, room: ground floor 31) and measurement laboratory (Brennhausgasse 14, room: ground floor 35).
Our expertise lies in the field of clay mineralogy and qualitative and quantitative phase analysis (using the Rietveld method). The image below shows an X-ray diffractogram with a standard Rietveld fit for a clay fraction (tertiary clay from Liebertwolkwitz, Saxony).
The quality of our work has already been recognised several times with 1st to 3rd place in the . Now we only support the project organisationally.
- 1st place: 2002 and 2014
- 2nd place: 2008
- 3rd place: 2006, 2010 and 2012
Preparation laboratory
The following equipment is used in our processing laboratory :
- Jaw crusher: fast and efficient coarse and pre-crushing of brittle rocks, slag or building materials
- McCrone mill: Grinding and mixing of wet or dry materials with a final fineness < 10 µm
- Powderisette: Homogenisation of wet or dry materials
- Table-top cooling centrifuge: Separation of solids and liquids for, among other thingsfine fractions in clay mineralogy
(see pictures from left to right)
Measuring laboratory
Our measurement laboratory has 4 X-ray diffractometers. The device with the highest measurement utilisation is the XRD ORION Comet P2.
X-ray diffractometer ORION Comet P2:
- Commissioning 25.03.2021
- Funded by the German Research Foundation under INST 267/163-1 FUGG
- Powder diffraction and measurement of texture preparations in Bragg-Brentano geometry
- Company: XRD Eigenmann GmbH SEIFERT Analytical X-ray
- Theta-theta goniometer
- Goniometer radius: 260 mm
- X-ray tube with cobalt anode (Co-Kα radiation)
- Detector: Semiconductor detector Meteor E/0D (point detector) and Meteor 1D (line detector)
- Sample changer: 12-fold for powder cuvettes or compact samples
- Phase identification: programme Analyze (Seifert-FPM) using the PDF-4+ database (output: annual update)
- Phase quantification with Rietveld method: Programme BGMN/AUTOQUAN (GE Seifert) and PROFEX (Nicola Döbelin)
Other X-ray diffractometers in the Mineralogical Laboratory are
- XRD 3000 TT,
- XRD 7 and
- HZG 4
(see images from left to right)
Courses (OPAL)
Bachelor Geology/ Mineralogy:
Master Geosciences: