The Challenge

There is increasing interest in GRs as materials for environmental remediation, however the formation and stability of GR is not well understood. Green rust is extremely air sensitive and can transform into other phases within seconds if exposed to oxygen in air. To monitor the formation of green rust and it’s behaviour under environmental conditions, measurements need to be performed in a highly controlled environment (e.g. oxygen-free). Also, analysis of the GR needs to be performed while the particles are forming from solution.

The Solution

I22 at Diamond is a beamline ideally suited to studying the formation of nanoparticles as it can measure length scales in the range of a few angstroms up to 250 nm coupled with time resolution of sub-milliseconds. The data collected on the beamline has been used to understand the kinetics and mechanisms of particle nucleation and growth under challenging experimental conditions (a wet, oxygen free environment).

The Benefits

The experiments provided an understanding of the key parameters involved in the formation and stability of GR. Optimisation of the reaction conditions, based on these results, allows the development of new pollution prevention technologies and could inform the design of new remediation technologies to clean up existing contaminated environments.