Nanometer-scale mechanisms of mineral and glass alteration

The chemical alteration of minerals and glasses in contact with aqueous fluids regulates the chemical composition of oceans, lakes and rivers, and plays a key role in the earth’s terrestrial C cycle. In addition, the chemical alteration of these phases has important implications for numerous industrial and environmental applications. This masters internship (stage M2) seeks to explore the nanometer-scale mechanisms of chemical alteration of minerals and glasses in the presence of aqueous fluids. Available data obtained from advanced, state-of-the-art surface analysis techniques will be used by the candidate in order to develop and understanding of the underlying processes that control chemical alteration. Manipulating and evaluating these data and images is the most important part of this work. The second part will consist of writing up the results in the form of a scientific paper. If conditions permit, an effort will be made to introduce the candidate to demonstrations of the various instruments (TEM, ToF-SIMS, AFM, APT) that were used to obtain the data used for the internship.