Fast-Geomimicking using chemistry in supercritical water

Angela Dumas (1) , Marie Claverie (1, 2) , Cédric Slostowski (1) , Guillaume Aubert (1) , Christel Careme (2) , Christophe Le Roux (3) , Pierre Micoud (3) , François Martin (3) , Cyril Aymonier (1)

1 ICMCB - Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux
2 Imerys Talc
3 GET - Géosciences Environnement Toulouse

Herein we introduce a powerful and fast method to produce nanominerals using a bottom up approach. The supercritical hydrothermal flow synthesis is exploited to produce model nanominerals by mimicking natural environments at high temperatures under pressure. This innovative concept is demonstrated with the talc synthesis; this represents a major technical breakthrough since it allows decreasing the mineral-synthesis time from tens of hours to tens of seconds. Through this example, we show these nanominerals exhibit new crystal-chemistry signals and new properties. This approach provides a means to reproduce the early stages of formation of minerals in different natural environments from sedimentary environments (low temperature and pressure) to hydrothermal/metamorphic environments (high temperature and high pressure).

Domaines: Matériaux

Angela Dumas, Marie Claverie, Cédric Slostowski, Guillaume Aubert, Christel Careme, et al.. Fast-Geomimicking using chemistry in supercritical water. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2016, 55 (34), pp.9868-9871. ⟨10.1002/anie.201604096⟩. ⟨hal-01360568⟩