Zeolite bearing deposits were characterized in Banyas region using sample A
(which is a powdered mixture taken from five tuff and tuffite levels) compared with
sample B (which is taken from Basatin Al-Assad site within the studied region).
XRD met
hod showed several zeolite phases in addition to non-zeolite minerals
and volcanic glass. FTIR method revealed a general feature of zeolite groups. DTA
method showed a range within zeolite structure stability. Specific surface area was
measured using BET method giving the value 87m2/g. The range of pore volume
distribution was also calculated with ~40Ǻ, and intermediate pore diameter of ~23Ǻ.
XRD study of the standard sample (B) showed slightly different zeolite phases
from A. FTIR measurement showed same results as in A. DTA plots revealed a high
stability of sample B, SBET of 61m2/g, VP around 40Ǻ and r- at ~25Ǻ.
In this research, the natural pyrite ore found in Tartous Governorate was described by studying the two samples taken from Hosn Suleiman -Safita (A) and Al Qadmous (B) area, in addition to studying the optimum conditions for pyrite dissolution (pH -
time - quantity) with aerobic conditions.
The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the sample (A) is mainly composed of pyrite mineral and does not contain impurities, while sample (B) is composed of pyrite mineral combined with a small amount of calcite mineral, and these results were confirmed by the result of (FTIR) infrared spectroscopy and Polarised light microscopy (PLM(. The iron percentage in the two samples (A,B) is ranged between (42.6 – 43 %) and the sulfur percentage is between (40 – 53.7 %).
With regard to pyrite dissolution, the results showed that pyrite taken from Hosn Suleiman (A) begins to dissolve at pH values less than 4.5, and the contact time is about 6 hours. By Comparing the results of sample (A) with sample (B), we found that the dissolution of sample (A) was about three times less than the dissolution of sample (B), and this is due to the fact that sample (A) contains pure and well crystallized pyrite ore while sample (B) contains pyrite combind with calcite, which increases its solubility.
