Determination of the iron oxidation state in earth materials using XANES pre-edge information.

Fe K-edge XANES spectra have been measured in more than 35 Fe(II) and Fe(III)-bearing minerals. The separation between the average pre-edge centroid positions for Fe(II) and Fe(III) is 1.4 +/- 0.1 eV. Examination of calculated pre-edge features of mechanical mixtures of phases containing different proportions of Fe(II) and Fe(III) reveals that different trends of pre-edge position vs. pre-edge intensity can be observed, depending on the coordination environment. Both pre-edge parameters have been used to estimate the ferric/ferrous ratio in 12 natural minerals.