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Electrical and Mechanical Properties of Geomaterials

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Materials Physics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 December 2020) | Viewed by 9178

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Institute of Physics of Earth's Interior and Geohazards, Hellenic Mediterranean University Research Center, Crete, Greece
Interests: electrical-dielectric properties of minerals and rocks at high temperatures or pressures, acoustic emissions from rocks under mechanical stress, thermodynamic properties of point defects

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In this Special Issue, we aspire to focus on recent research in the field of geomaterials (rocks, minerals, soils, concrete, etc.), a class of materials of great importance, both from scientific and technological points of view. Geomaterials have exhibited a long-standing interest to the scientific community due to their diverse fields of applications, from the construction industry to environmental remediation and implications for processes in Earth’s interior. Their study is based on theoretical and experimental methods from solid state physics and materials science in general, under different scales of investigation (nano- to macro-scale).

The electrical and mechanical behavior of geomaterials is quite complex due to the number of parameters affecting them, such as mineralogical composition, porosity, saturation with fluids and their interaction with the matrix, and the different thermodynamic conditions of temperature and pressure. It is noteworthy that special experimental facilities have been developed to study them under extreme conditions of temperature and pressure.

The potential topics of the Special Issue include but are not limited to the following:

  • Complex electrical-dielectric properties;
  • Conduction mechanisms;
  • Nano- and micromechanical properties;
  • Elastic properties and deformation characteristics;
  • The correlation between electrical and mechanical properties;
  • Advanced monitoring techniques;
  • The modelling of geomaterials.

Review articles on the recent advances in the electrical and/or mechanical properties of geomaterials and related measuring techniques are also welcome.

Prof. Vassilis Saltas
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • minerals
  • rocks
  • soils
  • concrete
  • high temperature and/or high pressure
  • conductivity
  • electrical properties
  • elastic properties
  • conduction mechanisms
  • deformation

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 4035 KiB  
Article
Complex Electrical Conductivity of Biotite and Muscovite Micas at Elevated Temperatures: A Comparative Study
by Vassilios Saltas, Despoina Pentari and Filippos Vallianatos
Materials 2020, 13(16), 3513; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13163513 - 9 Aug 2020
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2889
Abstract
The unique physicochemical, electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties of micas make them suitable for a wide range of industrial applications, and thus, the interest for these kind of hydrous aluminosilicate minerals is still persistent, not only from a practical but also from a [...] Read more.
The unique physicochemical, electrical, mechanical, and thermal properties of micas make them suitable for a wide range of industrial applications, and thus, the interest for these kind of hydrous aluminosilicate minerals is still persistent, not only from a practical but also from a scientific point of view. In the present work, complex impedance spectroscopy measurements were carried out in muscovite and biotite micas, perpendicular to their cleavage planes, over a broad range of frequencies (10−2 Hz to 106 Hz) and temperatures (473–1173 K) that have not been measured so far. Different formalisms of data representation were used, namely, Cole-Cole plots of complex impedance, complex electrical conductivity and electric modulus to analyze the electrical behavior of micas and the electrical signatures of the dehydration/dehydroxylation processes. Our results suggest that ac-conductivity is affected by the structural hydroxyls and the different concentrations of transition metals (Fe, Ti and Mg) in biotite and muscovite micas. The estimated activation energies, i.e., 0.33–0.83 eV for biotite and 0.69–1.92 eV for muscovite, were attributed to proton and small polaron conduction, due to the bound water and different oxidation states of Fe. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electrical and Mechanical Properties of Geomaterials)
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14 pages, 2162 KiB  
Article
Effect of Temperature, Pressure, and Chemical Composition on the Electrical Conductivity of Schist: Implications for Electrical Structures under the Tibetan Plateau
by Wenqing Sun, Lidong Dai, Heping Li, Haiying Hu, Changcai Liu and Mengqi Wang
Materials 2019, 12(6), 961; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12060961 - 22 Mar 2019
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2690
Abstract
The experimental study on the electrical conductivities of schists with various contents of alkali ions (CA = K2O + Na2O = 3.94, 5.17, and 5.78 wt.%) were performed at high temperatures (623–1073 K) and high pressures (0.5–2.5 [...] Read more.
The experimental study on the electrical conductivities of schists with various contents of alkali ions (CA = K2O + Na2O = 3.94, 5.17, and 5.78 wt.%) were performed at high temperatures (623–1073 K) and high pressures (0.5–2.5 GPa). Experimental results indicated that the conductivities of schist markedly increased with the rise of temperature. Pressure influence on the conductivities of schist was extremely weak at the entire range of experimental temperatures. Alkali ion content has a significant influence on the conductivities of the schist samples in a lower temperature range (623–773 K), and the influence gradually decreases with increasing temperature in a higher temperature range (823–1073 K). In addition, the activation enthalpies for the conductivities of three schist samples were fitted as being 44.16–61.44 kJ/mol. Based on the activation enthalpies and previous studies, impurity alkaline ions (K+ and Na+) were proposed as the charge carriers of schist. Furthermore, electrical conductivities of schist (10−3.5–10−1.5 S/m) were lower than those of high-conductivity layers under the Tibetan Plateau (10−1–100 S/m). It was implied that the presence of schist cannot cause the high-conductivity anomalies in the middle to lower crust beneath the Tibetan Plateau. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electrical and Mechanical Properties of Geomaterials)
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Review

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29 pages, 5335 KiB  
Review
An Overview of the Experimental Studies on the Electrical Conductivity of Major Minerals in the Upper Mantle and Transition Zone
by Lidong Dai, Haiying Hu, Jianjun Jiang, Wenqing Sun, Heping Li, Mengqi Wang, Filippos Vallianatos and Vassilios Saltas
Materials 2020, 13(2), 408; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13020408 - 15 Jan 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3049
Abstract
In this paper, we present the recent progress in the experimental studies of the electrical conductivity of dominant nominally anhydrous minerals in the upper mantle and mantle transition zone of Earth, namely, olivine, pyroxene, garnet, wadsleyite and ringwoodite. The main influence factors, such [...] Read more.
In this paper, we present the recent progress in the experimental studies of the electrical conductivity of dominant nominally anhydrous minerals in the upper mantle and mantle transition zone of Earth, namely, olivine, pyroxene, garnet, wadsleyite and ringwoodite. The main influence factors, such as temperature, pressure, water content, oxygen fugacity, and anisotropy are discussed in detail. The dominant conduction mechanisms of Fe-bearing silicate minerals involve the iron-related small polaron with a relatively large activation enthalpy and the hydrogen-related defect with lower activation enthalpy. Specifically, we mainly focus on the variation of oxygen fugacity on the electrical conductivity of anhydrous and hydrous mantle minerals, which exhibit clearly different charge transport processes. In representative temperature and pressure environments, the hydrogen of nominally anhydrous minerals can tremendously enhance the electrical conductivity of the upper mantle and transition zone, and the influence of trace structural water (or hydrogen) is substantial. In combination with the geophysical data of magnetotelluric surveys, the laboratory-based electrical conductivity measurements can provide significant constraints to the water distribution in Earth’s interior. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electrical and Mechanical Properties of Geomaterials)
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