Control of Grain-Size Distribution of Serpentinite Soils on Mineralogy and Heavy Metal Concentration

Abstract

The proportion of various grain size particles in soils is controlled largely by climate condition and moisture regimes. In general, tropical regions produce thick layers of fine grain soils due to high degree of weathering. Depends on the texture of soils, the capacity for storage of heavy metals changes. Serpentinized-ultramafic soils of Malaysia are of concern in this study containing high natural content of chromium, nickel and cobalt. These soils are comprised of a mixture of variable minerals ranging from inherited serpentines to magnetite, chlorite, ilmenite and minor to trace amounts of allochthonous quartz, clay minerals and phyllosilicates, such as kaolinite oxides and hydrous oxides of iron and manganese. The particle size distribution of serpentinite soils in Malaysia has received very limited study previously. This study attempts to find a relationship between the partitioning of Cr, Ni and Co among different soil size fractions with the mineralogical composition of serpentinite soils.

Impacts of ultramafic outcrops in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah on soil and water quality

“…These elements prevail in soils from Sabah, except for Co and V which are relatively more dominant in the Peninsular Malaysia soils. The higher content of Co can be attributed to the presence of cochromite mineral, as the main cobalt-bearing mineral, in all of the Peninsular Malaysia soil samples (Tashakor et al 2015). The elemental differences between the Sabah and Peninsular Malaysian soils may be explained by differences in the tectonic setting of the parent ophiolitic sequence, petrogenetic processes, and petrology of the exposed ophiolitic section.…”

“…The content of clay size fraction in soils showed a significant correlation (r = 0.73) with the CEC values. The identified clay minerals were of the kaolin type, mainly kaolinite and to some extent nacrite (as accessory phases) (Tashakor et al 2015). The kaolinite could be responsible for the variation in the CEC value, but the studied soils contained only very small amounts of kaolinite which cannot effectively change the result of the CEC.…”

“…The mineral assemblage of ultramafic soils from Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia (Tashakor et al 2015;Tashakor 2017) showed typical features of tropical soils with oxide and hydrous oxides of Mg and Fe, in particular hematite and goethite. Aluminum hydroxide was common in the soils from Sabah.…”

Structural, Chemical and Magnetic Characterization of Quartz Sand from Cluj Area, Romania for Future Beneficiation in the Glass Industry

“…To complete the information about the phases contained, it is necessary to have an insight about the iron or element localization of the sand grains [17]. Such information about the phase and composition distribution, especially in low quantity percentage, can be obtained by performing Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) studies, coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, EDX.…”

Study on the particle size reduction by milling of quartz sand for magnetic separation

“…The ball milling was found to be useful in sand purification and particle size reduction [10]. In the milled sand it is important to have an insight on the iron phase distribution in the particles [11]. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with X-ray energy dispersive spectrometry (EDX) was found to be a suitable technique for sand characterization, as proved by several studies [12 -16].…”