Synchrotron X-Ray Techniques in Soil, Plant, and Environmental Research

Publisher Summary New generations of synchrotrons designed exclusively as X-ray sources have followed, and these powerful sources of X-rays have become important to a wide variety of scientific disciplines. The past five years have seen a growing number of applications of synchrotron-based techniques to problems in the soil and environmental sciences. Synchtron-based techniques have applications in many other areas of agricultural research as well. The chapter highlights some of the major applications in soil, plant, and environmental research. Many of these applications represent the first use of synchrotron-based techniques in particular agricultural disciplines. The chapter describes the ways in which synchrotrons work, describe the properties of synchrotron radiation, and explain the terminology associated with synchrotron-based research. Synchrotrons vary in their capabilities, so a general understanding of their differences will allow, in a general sense, to assess the suitability of a particular synchrotron for a specific experiment. Synchrotron light is extremely intense is emitted over a wide range of energies, is highly collimated and highly polarized, and has a pulsed time structure. The chapter reviews the applications of synchrotron-based techniques to soil, plant, and environmental research and suggests possible future applications. Some techniques are well established and widely used, e.g., X-ray absorption spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and the X-ray microprobe. Other techniques, such as Mossbauer and infrared spectroscopies, are still being developed and there is little or no literature on direct applications to soil, plant, or environmental research.