Rietveld-based mineralogical quantitation of deferrified oxisol clays

Although the mineralogical quantitative analysis of the soil clay fraction can provide useful information for the improvement of soil management practices, the quantitation of all clay components normally requires a combination of different analytical techniques, which makes this determination expensive and time-consuming. One alternative for more expeditious mineralogical quantitations consists of using the Rietveld method for the treatment of X-ray diffraction (XRD) data. In this study we evaluate the accuracy of the mineralogical quantitative analyses of oxisol deferrified clays carried out with the application of the Rietveld method to XRD data obtained for both non-spray- and spray-dried samples. Linear regression analyses were carried out for comparing the XRD-Rietveld results with those calculated from X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) data. Correspondence was observed between the XRD-Rietveld and XRF-derived data, confirming the potential utility of the Rietveld method for soil clay mineralogical quantitative analysis. Although sample preparation by using the spray drying procedure tended to improve XRD mineralogical quantitation, accurate results can be also achieved when this procedure is not available in the XRD laboratory.