Manganese (Mn) oxides are among the most reactive minerals in the earth's surface environment, and play a significant role in adsorption, co-precipitation and redox reactions, affecting biogeochemical cycles of numerous nutrients and contaminants. In addition, manganese oxides are widely applied as absorbents, ion sieves, chemical oxidants and catalysts for environmental remediation and pollution control. There are, however, still many aspects poorly understood in terms of the environmental geochemistry of manganese oxides, such as biogenic formation mechanisms, detailed crystal structure of nanocrystalline phases, electron transfer paths in redox reactions, adsorption mechanisms of contaminants on surfaces, physiochemical factors controlling the contents of structural Mn(III) and vacant sites that largely determine Mn oxide reactivity, and the role of Mn(III) in the above processes. This book aims to bring together advances on manganese oxide environmental biogeochemistry from leading scientists in multiple disciplines, e.g., mineralogy, geochemistry, soil science and environmental engineering. A number of frontier research topics are included in the book, such as in-situ characterization of Mn oxide reactivity with As and Cr, kinetics and molecular-scale mechanisms of metal oxidation by mangnese oxides, mechanistic understanding of metal sorption through density function theory, the role of surface edge sites of birnessites in metal(loid) sorption, reactivity of natural crytomelane, pathways of phyllomanganate transformation to todorokite, water-oxidation catalysis by manganese oxides, in situ As immobilization using stabilized Fe-Mn binary oxides, and synthesis of Li ion-sieves from biogenic oxides and stability of colloidal Mn oxides. The book should be of interest to scientists and engineers in a broad range of disciplines, such as geochemistry, soil science, mineralogy, microbiology, materials science, and environment engineering, as well as graduate students who are engaged in research on manganese oxide biogeochemistry and the engineering application of Mn-bearing materials.

A bold new story of human progress, told through six materials that built our world and will transform our future.

Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium. They built our world, and they will transform our future.

These are the six most crucial substances in human history. They took us from the Dark Ages to the present day. They power our computers and phones, build our homes and offices, and create life-saving medicines. But most of us take them completely for granted.

In Material World, Ed Conway travels the globe - from the sweltering depths of the deepest mine in Europe, to spotless silicon chip factories in Taiwan, to the eerie green pools where lithium originates - to uncover a secret world we rarely see. Revealing the true marvel of these substances, he follows the mind-boggling journeys, miraculous processes and little-known companies that turn the raw materials we all need into products of astonishing complexity.

As we wrestle with climate change, energy crises and the threat of new global conflict, Conway shows why these substances matter more than ever before, and how the hidden battle to control them will shape our geopolitical future. This is the story of civilisation - our ambitions and glory, innovations and appetites - from a new perspective: literally from the ground up.

This comprehensive handbook and ready reference details all the main achievements in the field of perovskite-based and related mixed-oxide materials. The authors discuss, in an unbiased manner, the potentials as well as the challenges related to their use, thus offering new perspectives for research and development on both an academic and industrial level. The first volume begins by summarizing the different synthesis routes from molten salts at high temperatures to colloidal crystal template methods, before going on to focus on the physical properties of the resulting materials and their related applications in the fields of electronics, energy harvesting, and storage as well as electromechanics and superconductivity. The second volume is dedicated to the catalytic applications of perovskites and related mixed oxides, including, but not limited to total oxidation of hydrocarbons, dry reforming of methane and denitrogenation. The concluding section deals with the development of chemical reactors and novel perovskite-based applications, such as fuel cells and high-performance ceramic membranes. Throughout, the contributions clearly point out the intimate links between structure, properties and applications of these materials, making this an invaluable tool for materials scientists and for catalytic and physical chemists.

Gemstones have been a source of fascination for Millenia, from the icy brilliance of diamond and the soft iridescence of pearl, to the deep red garnets treasured by ancient Egyptians and Victorians alike. They are used for their natural beauty in jewellery, worn for protection as talismans, associated with romance and power. They are also of scientific importance, forming over billions of years and containing secrets to the inner earth. This book examines the world's most commonly encountered gemstones, exploring their unique beauty, rarity, and durability. It reveals how these gem materials formed, where they are mined, how they are identified by their physical and optical properties, their enhancements and imitations. Travelling through each gem's history and use in adornment, it is filled with fascinating facts for the curious to the professional. With sumptuous colour photographs, Gemstones is a dazzling insight into the world of the rare and valuable.

This is the first book which deals with the economics of diamonds, specifically with the determinants of diamond prices. The period of analysis, 1978-1983, was chosen in order to shed light on the dramatic drop in diamond prices. The dominant variables causing this drop were the varying price of gold and fluctuating interest rates. Khoury helps the investor in making long-range decisions about investing in diamonds and deciding on the form the investment should take. He warns of the importance to understand the sensitivities of the market and the factors which must be taken into consideration before commitments to an investment in diamonds are made.

The book includes: a quick review of the characteristics of diamonds, the financial performance of DeBeers in a declining market, the economic structure of the diamond industry, the method for exercising economic control over the diamond market, the economic variables influencing diamond prices, and the modeling of diamond prices and the testing of the model using advanced statistical methods.

This volume discusses the role of ZIF-8 composites in water decontamination as an adsorbent and photocatalyst. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are advanced porous materials and are promising adsorbents with facile modifications, high specific surface area, controllable porosity, and tailored surface properties. Water pollution is a major concern and has endangered human health. Recently, researchers have designed MOFs for use in remediation.

This volume discusses the role of MOFs in removal of pharmaceutical pollutants. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are advanced porous materials and are promising adsorbents with facile modifications, high specific surface area, controllable porosity, and tailored surface properties. Pharmaceutical pollution is an issue of concern due to its effects on environment. Recently, researchers have designed MOFs for use in remediation.

This book explores sustainable mining knowledge, assessing researchers on the impacts of waste and new approaches to negotiating these impacts. Mining has always been a profitable venture; however, it comes with several boons and banes. The significant advantages of mining include employment generation, the establishment of townships and trade centers, and socio-economic growth. However, the mining activity is a significant cause of environmental degradation, including soils, atmosphere, water, solid wastes, changed topography, and health hazards. This book emphasizes value-added products from mining wastes and innovations for balancing environment, ecology, and economy. This book is designed for miners, policymakers, professionals, researchers, scientists, industrialists, and environmental agencies.

This book offers a comprehensive view of the valuable uranium ores and analytical electron microscopy methods, including electron microdiffraction principles, an essential technique for studying uranous minerals. This book also explains the laws governing the formation of uranium mineral accumulations, based on concepts published by the renowned Russian mineralogist L.N. Belova. It addresses all types of ore uranium concentrations in the hypergene region and schematizes all uranium mineral formation processes. Readers will also find selected examples of different genetic types of uranium deposits of black sooty ores; the data gathered from all findings on ningyoite worldwide, and new crystal chemistry data on tetravalent uranium phosphates.

This book collects and summarizes current scientific knowledge concerning coal-mined landscapes of the Appalachian region in eastern United States. Containing contributions from authors across disciplines, the book addresses topics relevant to the region's coal-mining history and its future; its human communities; and the soils, waters, plants, wildlife, and human-use potentials of Appalachia's coal-mined landscapes. The book provides a comprehensive overview of coal mining's legacy in Appalachia, USA. It book describes the resources of the Appalachian coalfield, its lands and waters, and its human communities - as they have been left in the aftermath of intensive mining, drawing upon peer-reviewed science and other regional data to provide clear and objective descriptions. By understanding the Appalachian experience, officials and planners in other resource extraction- affected world regions can gain knowledge and perspectives that will aid their own efforts to plan and manage for environmental quality and for human welfare. Appalachia's Coal-Mined Landscapes: Resources and Communities in a New Energy Era will be of use to natural resource managers and scientists within Appalachia and in other world regions experiencing widespread mining, researchers with interest in the region's disturbance legacy, and economic and community planners concerned with Appalachia's future.

This book summarizes the latest research on the structural geology of the mobile belts of the Indian subcontinent including the Himalayas, NE Himalayas, Bangladesh thrust belt, Andaman subduction zone, the Aravalli-Delhi, the Central India Tectonic Zone, the Singhbhum, the Eastern Ghats and the Southern granulite terrane. It offers essential information on deformational structures in the mobile belt, such as folding patterns, the character of the shear zone, shear strain analysis, and faults, as well as fault zone rocks. The findings presented here are based on field observations, mapping, sampling and analysis work (e.g. petrographic studies), as well as limited geochemical and geochronological analysis to support the findings. A discussion on the structural evolution of these mobile belts and their connections with other belts rounds out the coverage.

The book summarizes the results of the experimental studies of phase relations in the chemical systems relevant to Earth, carried out by the author in a time period of over 20 years between 1979 and 2001. It is based on 1000 piston-cylinder experiments at pressures up to 4 GPa, and close to 700 experiments carried out with a multi-anvil apparatus at pressures up to 24 GPA. This is the largest published collection of calculated phase diagrams for the chemical systems relevant to Earth. This is also the first time that the phase relations at the relatively low pressures of the lithospheric mantle, mainly applicable to the experimental thermobarometry of metamorphic rocks and mantle xenoliths, are seamlessly integrated with the phase relations of the sublithospheric upper mantle and the uppermost lower mantle, primarily applicable to inclusions in diamond and schocked meteorites. "Tibor Gasparik has devoted his career to determining the high-pressure, high-temperature phase relations of the geologically important Sodium-Calcium-Magnesium-Aluminium-Silicon (NCMAS) oxide system. This book is his opus magnum, summarizing more than 1700 experiments in over 120 figures. ... I have found Phase Diagrams for Geoscientists to be a useful first port-of-call for finding the P-T stability fields ... and I can recommend the book as a reference for geoscientists requiring an overview of the stable phase assemblages in the top 700 km of the Earth." (David Dobson, Geological Magazine, Vol. 142 (2), 2005)

This book successfully connects archaeology and archaeometallurgy with geoscience and metallurgy. It addresses topics concerning ore deposits, archaeological field evidence of early metal production, and basic chemical-physical principles, as well as experimental ethnographic works on a low handicraft base and artisanal metal production to help readers better understand what happened in antiquity. The book is chiefly intended for scholars and students engaged in interdisciplinary work.