Micro-Raman Study of Thermal Transformations of Sulfide and Oxysalt Minerals Based on the Heat Induced by Laser

Abstract

The minerals in the hydrothermal and cold seep system form at different temperatures and show responses to the laser power to varying degrees. Here, we focus on the heat-induced by laser to study thermal transformations of the chalcopyrite, covellite, pyrite, barite, and aragonite based on Raman spectroscopy. Chalcopyrite mainly transforms into hematite, and covellite mainly transforms into chalcocite with the increase of laser power. Interestingly, comparing with the previous study, the pyrite can transform to the marcasite firstly, and form hematite finally. We also find that high-temperature opaque chalcopyrite is more likely to occur thermal transformations due to the smaller absolute energy difference (|ΔE1|) based on the frontier orbital theory. In contrast, the oxysalt minerals won’t transform into new components under high laser power. However, the structure of the barite has been destroyed by the high laser power, while the more transparent aragonite is not affected by the high laser power due to the laser penetrates through the transparent aragonite crystal and causes little heat absorption. Finally, we established the minimum laser power densities for thermal transformations of these minerals formed under different environments. The above study provides a simple way to study the thermal transformations of minerals by the local heat-induced by laser and also enlightens us to identify the minerals phases precisely.