Characterization of six types of Mexican onyx

This paper presents some main features of the Mexican onyx as well as the determination of the characteristics of the 6 samples from the Zacatecas semi-desert corresponding to the municipality of Mazapil, which are classified according to their representative color: yellow, blue, brown, orange, red and green. The characterization techniques that were used were: X-ray fluorescence dispersed energy spectroscopy, visible ultraviolet spectrometry and infrared spectroscopy. With these techniques was possible to study the chemical, physical and optical characteristics of the Mexican onyx; where the elemental composition, absorption peaks, vibrational modes and optical band gap were obtained. The interactions of these materials with radiation were also studied. From this last study, the mass interaction coefficient for coherent and incoherent dispersion, photoelectric effect, Compton dispersion and pair production, in the nucleus and electron field, as well as the total mass and linear attenuation coefficient for the 6 samples were obtained, this in order to determine their capacity as shielding. (Author)