Organic matter identifies the nano-mechanical properties of native soil aggregates

Gazzè, Salvatore A.; Hallin, Ingrid; Quinn, Gerry A.; Dudley, Ed; Matthews, G. Peter; Rees, Paul; Keulen, Geertje van; Doerr, Stefan H.; Francis, Lewis

doi:10.1039/c7nr07070e

Cited by 11 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(32 reference statements)

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“…Nanoindentation test results are a feasibility study of soil fundamental mechanical properties such as porosity distribution, and energy transferred fracture toughness. Also, the indentation method is commonly used in engineering applications recently to obtain a deep understanding of soil properties [14][15][16]. It is difficult to determine the soil mechanical properties with soil particles using conventional tests due to the particle size and the lack of fine-scale analysis methods [14,17].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the nanoindentation approach enables a quantitative assessment of the porosity in the material. The composition of the soil is not only related to the roughness and surface variability of the soil, but also to the stiffness and adhesion properties [16]. The chemical composition of soil also affects the binding mechanism of soil [18].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The chemical composition of soil also affects the binding mechanism of soil [18]. In addition, soil activity at the field-scale is potentially affected by major chemical reactions that appear in the soil at the nano-scale [16]. Therefore, more nanoindentation study needs to be conducted and linked to the conventional testing methods to find the application in soil mechanics.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Investigation of Pindan soil modified with polymer stablisers for road pavement

Park

Lee

Vimonsatit

2020

J Infrastruct Preserv Resil

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Road failures are often caused by structural weaknesses, and particularly unsealed roads are vulnerable to water as water easily flows into road structures. Moisture susceptibility of materials is an important aspect when pavements are designed as moisture can weaken bonds between aggregates. Pindan soil is a red soil, known as a soft and moisture sensitive soil. Polymer stabilisers have been proved that they can improve soil mechanical properties by providing an internal waterproofing. Studies of the polymer-Pindan soil stabilisation have been focused on engineering performances, but literature shows little information on the fundamental information of Pindan soil. This project focuses on fundamental information of Pindan soil and its improved performances using polymer stabilisers. Plastic index, specific gravity and particle size distribution were tested to obtain the basic properties. Compaction, Unconfined Compressive Strength and California Bearing Ratio tests were performed to determine the mechanical properties. The chemical property was examined using X-ray diffraction. Furthermore, the waterproof effect of the polymers on the stabilised Pindan soil was investigated from capillary rise tests. In addition, the mechanical properties of individual soil grains were investigated using nanoindentation tests. The materials used for this investigation primarily consisted of Pindan soil collected in Broome, Western Australia, and three polymer products manufactured in Australia. Based on the results, it is evident that the failure behaviour, strain and strength as well as the basic properties of the soils are affected and changed by the Polymer stabilisers. The type of polymer influenced the optimum moisture contents and strengths rather than the amount of polymer. Similarly, Nanoindentation technology provided various information such as elastic modulus, hardness, packing density, stiffness, cohesion and fracture toughness of soils at nano-scales. Polymers can reduce water ingress and minimise moisture in the pavement structures. Thus, the structures can maintain its strength and prevent deformation, which will increase the lifetime of unsealed pavements.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Investigation of Pindan soil modified with polymer stablisers for road pavement

Park

Lee

Vimonsatit

2020

J Infrastruct Preserv Resil

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“…Soil organic matter was removed by hydrogen peroxide flushing prior to particle size analysis by a Malvern Mastersizer 2000 (Worcestershire, UK) (Gazze et al, 2018). Nitrogen and carbon (total and organic) were measured using a Thermo Scientific FlashEA® 1112 Nitrogen and Carbon Analyzer (Massachusetts, USA) according to ISO methods 13878 and 10694, respectively (Gazze et al, 2018).…”

Section: Soil Characterisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of the Park Grass Experiment soil metaproteome

Quinn

Abdelhameed

Banat

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The Park Grass Experiment, is an international reference soil with an impressive repository of temperate grassland metadata, however, it still lacks documentation of its soil metaproteome. The identification of these proteins is crucial to our understanding of soil ecology and their role in major biogeochemical processes. However, protein extraction can be fraught with technical difficulties including co-extraction of humic material and lack of a compatible databases to identify proteins. To address these issues, we used two compatible soil protein extraction techniques on Park Grass soil, one that removed humic material, namely a modified freeze-dry, heat,thaw, phenol, chloroform (HTPC) method and another which co-extracted humic material, namely an established surfactant method. Proteins were identified by matching mass spectra against a tailored Park Grass metagenome database. We identified a broad range of proteins from Park Grass soil, mainly in protein metabolism , membrane transport, carbohydrate metabolism, respiration and ribosome associated categories, enabling reconstitution of specific processes active in grassland soil. The soil microbiome was dominated by Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria and Firmicutes at phyla level and Bradyrhizobium, Rhizobium, Acidobacteria, Streptomyces and Pseudolabrys at genus level. Further functional enrichment analysis enabled us to identify many proteins in regulatory and signalling networks of key biogeochemical cycles such as the nitrogen cycle. The combined extraction methods connected previous Park Grass metadata with the metaproteome, biogeochemistry and soil ecology. This could provide a base on which future targeted studies of important soil processes and their regulation can be built.

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“…where N is the number of points in the scanned area and Z i is the vertical displacement of the ith data point from the mean data plane ( Fig. 7b) (Gazze et al 2018).…”

Section: Soilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved Interpretation of Mercury Intrusion and Soil Water Retention Percolation Characteristics by Inverse Modelling and Void Cluster Analysis

et al. 2018

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This work addresses two continuing fallacies in the interpretation of percolation characteristics of porous solids. The first is that the first derivative (slope) of the intrusion characteristic of the non-wetting fluid or drainage characteristic of the wetting fluid corresponds to the void size distribution, and the second is that the sizes of all voids can be measured. The fallacies are illustrated with the aid of the PoreXpert ® inverse modelling package. A new void analysis method is then described, which is an add-on to the inverse modelling package and addresses the second fallacy. It is applied to three widely contrasting and challenging porous media. The first comprises two fine-grain graphites for use in the next-generation nuclear reactors. Their larger void sizes were measured by mercury intrusion, and the smallest by using a grand canonical Monte Carlo interpretation of surface area measurement down to nanometre scale. The second application is to the mercury intrusion of a series of mixtures of ground calcium carbonate with powdered microporous calcium carbonate known as functionalised calcium carbonate (FCC). The third is the water retention/drainage characteristic of a soil sample which undergoes naturally occurring hydrophilic/hydrophobic transitions. The first-derivative approximation is shown to be reasonable in the interpretation of the mercury intrusion porosimetry of the two graphites, which differ only at low mercury intrusion

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Organic matter identifies the nano-mechanical properties of native soil aggregates

Cited by 11 publications

References 28 publications

Investigation of Pindan soil modified with polymer stablisers for road pavement

Investigation of Pindan soil modified with polymer stablisers for road pavement

Identification of the Park Grass Experiment soil metaproteome

Improved Interpretation of Mercury Intrusion and Soil Water Retention Percolation Characteristics by Inverse Modelling and Void Cluster Analysis

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