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Distribution of brine in grain boundaries during static recrystallization in wet, synthetic halite: insight from broad ion beam sectioning and SEM observation at cryogenic temperature

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Abstract

We report observations from room temperature static recrystallization experiments (annealing times from minutes to year) of cold-pressed, synthetic, coarse-grained, wet sodium chloride, prepared by broad ion beam polishing and SEM observations at cryogenic temperature to observe directly the brine in grain boundaries. At all stages of annealing, the majority of the brine in the samples is connected in 2D sections along grain boundaries. Another part of the brine is in isolated brine inclusion arrays along grain boundaries and in brine inclusions left behind by migrating brine-filled grain boundaries. Most of these boundaries are mobile because the aggregate is coarsening. We interpret that the boundaries without observable brine films (<15 nm) and brine inclusion arrays are healed and immobile. Evolution of grain boundary structure involves three major processes. First, dissolution on one side of the grain boundary and precipitation on the other side, resulting in grain boundary migration. Second, the development of facets formed by low-index crystallographic planes of the grains bounding the grain boundary brine. When both sides of a grain boundary are able to develop low-index facets in a thick brine film, the resulting impingement boundary is interpreted to be immobile and may prevent the new grain from migrating into a deformed neighbor. When one side of a faceted boundary consists of low-index crystallographic planes and the other side passively follows this faceted shape along irrational surfaces, the boundary is mobile. Third, the healing of grain boundary brine films, producing solid–solid grain boundaries without resolvable brine films.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for supporting our project and funding the BIB-cryo-SEM instrument (Project UR 64/9-2). We are also grateful to Dr. Georg Koschek, Dr. Christian Jaeger and Mr. Hans-Rolf Schreiber from Carl Zeiss NTS GmbH, and Dr. Sebastian van Offern from Klocke Nanotechnik GmbH for their work to help us to develop the BIB-cryo-SEM instrument. We thank Prof. Dr. F. Michael Meyer from Institut für Mineralogie und Lagerstättenlehre at RWTH Aachen University for hosting the instrument; and Franz Grümmer from the Geological Institute at RWTH Aachen University for his help with installing the instrument.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Structural Geology, Tectonics and Geomechanics, RWTH Aachen University, Lochnerstrasse 4-20, 52056, Aachen, Germany

    Guillaume Desbois & Janos L. Urai

  2. Geological Institute, RWTH Aachen University, Wüllnerstr. 2, 52062, Aachen, Germany

    Peter A. Kukla & Uwe Wollenberg

  3. Carl Zeiss NTS GmbH, Carl-Zeiss Str. 56, 73447, Oberkochen, Germany

    Fabián Pérez-Willard

  4. Technoorg–Linda Ltd.Co, Rózsa Utca 24, 1077, Budapest, Hungary

    Zsolt Radí & Sandor Riholm

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  1. Guillaume Desbois
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Correspondence to Guillaume Desbois.

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Communicated by J. Hoefs.

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Desbois, G., Urai, J.L., Kukla, P.A. et al. Distribution of brine in grain boundaries during static recrystallization in wet, synthetic halite: insight from broad ion beam sectioning and SEM observation at cryogenic temperature. Contrib Mineral Petrol 163, 19–31 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-011-0656-x

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