Use of automated mineralogy for the quantification of pyrrhotite in concrete aggregates

Concrete is one of the most sought-after materials in our time, second only to water in importance to developed and emerging nations alike. It has been a crucial component of major infrastructure projects for thousands of years. In the year 2022 alone, China, the largest producer of concrete, manufactured approximately 2.1 million metric tons of cement, a key ingredient in modern concrete formulations. Various concrete mixes, tailored for specific applications, have been perfected and are widely used in the industry. In broad terms, concrete consists of about three-fifths sand and rock fragments (aggregates), one-fifth cement, and one-fifth water. This combination makes it the world's most widely used building material, particularly for large structures which are reinforced with steel rods. Aggregates can be sourced from crushed rock or naturally occurring sand and gravel, but the type of aggregate used significantly influences the overall properties and robustness of the final product. The mineralogical composition of the rock itself is closely related to the quality and resilience of the concrete. Understanding the mineralogy and chemistry of the lithotypes used allows for predicting their interaction with other concrete constituents, preventing undesirable chemical reactions. Such reactions can compromise the safety and resilience of the finished product, and ultimately prevent the use of materials that would otherwise perform poorly. Among the many concrete pathologies that may arise from the use of inadequate raw materials, internal sulfate attack (ISA) mainly occurs when sulfide-bearing aggregates are used. This leads to complex chemical reactions resulting in the oxidation of sulfide phases and the release of sulfur into the cement paste. Consequently, severe cracking and internal swelling significantly compromise concrete integrity. The European standard (EN 12620:2008) is a widely used guideline that recommends a total sulfur content in aggregates not exceeding 1.0 wt.%. This threshold is reduced to 0.1 wt.% when pyrrhotite is detected in the lithotype to be used as an aggregate. Given that pyrrhotite is the second most common sulfide found in nature, it is crucial to identify and quantify the various sulfide minerals that may be present and to understand how they can affect finished concrete structures. The use of automated mineralogy, represented by software systems such as QEMSCAN, emerges as a powerful solution for identifying and quantifying pyrrhotite and any other sulfide phases in aggregates for concrete. It is a scanning electron microscope (SEM)-based system that uses backscattered electron (BSE) image segmentation and simultaneous acquisition of energy-dispersive X-ray (EDS) spectra to classify mineral phases using a pre-defined list of mineral spectra. Preliminary results from QEMSCAN analysis of both thin sections and mounts comprised of ground rock of different grain sizes have been promising. This SEM-based system can analyze whole rock samples and crushed aggregates, providing accurate results over different size intervals. Despite the expected negative correlation between sample grain size and pyrrhotite content, the results vary from 2.71 to 5.59 wt.% for total pyrrhotite content in the analyzed samples. Moreover, when averaged over all grain sizes, these results align with those obtained through traditional optical petrography.