Year of publication
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Excerpt
The mounting of oriented clay specimens for X-ray diffraction analysis can be done in several ways, e.g. by smearing a clay paste onto a glass slide, by drying a clay suspension on a glass slide or by sedimentation from a suspension on a porous plate by suction (Gibbs, 1965; Tien, 1974). The latter technique has proven to be very rapid and convenient and the quality of the specimens produced in this way compares well with that of other techniques (Gibbs, 1965). Procedures for the porous plate technique have been described by several authors: Kinter and Diamond (1956), Durnmler and Schroeder (1965), Rich (1969), Shaw (1972), Van Reeuwijk (1979) and LaManna and Bowers (1985). The procedure by Van Reeuwijk is the only one developed for the preparation of small-size specimens to be used in automatic sample changers such as the Philips PW 1170.Although the suction apparatus used in this procedure is relatively uncomplicated, we have successfully used a still simpler device derived from the bottom section of the previous one. Any workshop that has the disposal of a lathe could manufacture the apparatus. As the previous one, the apparatus can be made to accept porous plates of other sizes than those indicated here.