Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
and temperature limits. Using this set up, Goranson
[39]
carried out a systematic
study pertaining to the solubility of water in a liquid having the composition of the
Stone Mountain Granite, and this investigation was considered as the most out-
standing advancement in the application of hydrothermal laboratory studies to pet-
rologic problems. The driving forces for the volcanic activity were related to the
crystallization of hydrous silicate liquids.
During this time, hydrothermal research began in Eastern Europe and Asia on
a small scale, and much later in China and India—maybe after World War II. Here,
the reader should observe that the hydrometallurgy was quite an established field
of research in many countries in Europe, North America, Eastern Europe, and Asia,
particularly after
the discovery of bauxite leaching by Karl
Josef Bayer
(1871
1908)
[40]
. While writing the history of hydrothermal technology, the
authors paid more attention to crystal growth and materials science rather than
metallurgy or metal extraction. Therefore, historical references are not made for
hydrometallurgical processes. As the authors of this monograph are from Japan and
India, a brief history of the hydrothermal research in these two countries is given.
Today, Japan is the second most active country in the world for hydrothermal
research next to the United States of America, and India stands in the fifth position
(based on the statistics prepared from Chemical Abstracts, Science Citation Index,
and INSPEC data bases from 1989 to 2011) with respect to the hydrothermal
research in Materials Science (Figure 1.14a and b). More details on the statistics can
be obtained from Chapter 1. According to Prof. Shigeyuki Somiya
[41]
, in Japan the
hydrothermal work was first initiated in 1926 by Dr. Tominosuke Katsurai, and the
work was related to hydrometallurgy. He worked on the soda treatment of aluminum
ore through hydrothermal extraction. Following this, Prof. Shoichiro Nagai reported
the synthesis of calcium silicate in 1931
[42]
. Perhaps, this was the beginning of
hydrothermal synthesis in Japan. Before going into the further developments which
took place during the World War period, let us discuss briefly the progress achieved
by the earliest workers of twentieth century in the area of hydrothermal phase
equilibrium studies.
Pioneers like Bridgman, Cohen, Morey, Niggli, Fenner, and Bowen in the early
twentieth century changed the scenario of hydrothermal research. They carried out
an impressive amount of basic research along with their European counterparts,
especially Tammann. Much of this early work was concerned with the setting up
the pressure scale and testing. The results were predicted from thermodynamics.
However, the total research effort was small and the study passed into a period of
dormancy except for phase equilibria studies in some systems relevant to the natu-
ral systems. This was connected with the need for materials with a combination of
high strength and corrosion resistance at high temperatures. Thus, the interest was
again mostly geological, and the bulk of research is from the geological science
perspective. Most of the early geological workers appreciated the necessity for con-
sidering very simple chemical systems before there was any hope of understanding
the complexities of natural chemical systems. Thus, the early work of the
Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institute of Washington was heavily biased
toward pure chemistry
[43]
.
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