Characterization of quartz sand deposits from Al Qaryatyien area in Syria

Abstract

A spectroscopic, physiochemical, and radioactivity characterization of quartz sand samples from Al Qaryatyien area in Syria has been carried out. XRF analysis showed the dominance of SiO₂ in the chemical composition of the sand (95.10% on average) with a tiny portion of other minerals. The index of XRD spectrum revealed the quartz structural for SiO₂ in the sand where the calculated unit constants (a_cal=4.9070, c_cal=5.3539) were so close to those found in the references (a_ref=4.91120, c_ref=5.4040), which refer to a high degree of purity. Moreover, the good crystallinity of quartz was confirmed by FTIR analysis where the calculated crystal Index was (CI_cal=1.415). Thermal analysis manifested the stability of the sample almost, the TGA curve indicated slight changes in mass (1.45%), and most of those changes were due to losing both moisture and crystalized water. The DTA curve showed stability in slope with no changes except the characteristic endothermic peak of the phase transition of quartz from α to β. On the other hand, the natural radioactivity of the decay chains of ²³⁸U, ²³²Th, and ²³⁵U was measured using HPGe spectrometry and the mean values of radionuclide activity concentrations were below the limit of detection.