Moessbauer characterization of iron oxides and (oxy)hydroxides: the present state of the art

Moessbauer spectroscopy is a powerful direct technique for the identification and quantification of iron oxides and (oxy)hydroxides in soils and sediments. However, further characterization with respect to structural properties such as crystallinity, Al substitution, stoichiometry, water content, etc. is rather limited. With some examples of synthetic and natural goethite and hematite sample series it is illustrated that the hyperfine parameters depend on much more structural features than the Al content and crystallinity alone. Neither the Morin transition in hematite nor the Verwey transition in magnetite is directly applicable for analytical purposes in natural samples