A holistic approach towards characterizing the El-Oued siliceous sand (eastern Algeria) for potential industrial applications

Physicochemical, mineralogical, and thermogravimetric characterizations were carried out to assess the potential technological benefits of natural sand deposits from El-Oued district (eastern Algeria). The use of granulometric analysis, FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM/EDX), and thermogravimetric (TGA) analysis was necessary to further highlight the main physical and chemical properties of the studied sands. The grain size distribution suggests fine-to-medium sands with a mean grain size ranged from 207 to 261 μm. However, the grain micro-texture features indicate aeolian nature of El-Oued sand, and the chemical analysis reveals that all samples contain a high ratio of silica (SiO2) reaching 94% with low content of CaO, Al2O3, Fe2O3, Na2O, and K2O oxides, which reflects the siliceous nature of El-Oued sand. The mineralogy of the El-Oued sand consists mainly of α-quartz (≤ 93% SiO2) with minor calcite (CaCO3) and very small amounts of feldspar mineral. Furthermore, the crystallite size of Quartz in all sand samples was determined to be in the range of nanometric scale. Thermal analysis (TGA) showed that El-Oued sand was relatively stable upon 800 °C. These characteristics corroborate the interesting and promising uses of El-Oued sand in the industry and nanotechnology.