Abstract:
The present work investigates the chemical properties of natural sand obtained from Crescent Island Crater in Lake Naivasha catchment, Kenya. Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FT-IR), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) spectroscopic analysis was performed. The XRD results showed that quartz (SiO2), calcite (CaCO3), clinochlore ((Mg, Fe)6(Si, Al)4O10(OH)8)) and microcline (K (Al, Fe) Si3O8) are the main components of the raw sand. The XRF analysis confirmed that silica (SiO2), reaching upto 66.89 ± 0.41 % was the main component of the sand sample with very low quantities of CaO, Fe2O3, MgO, K2O and Al2O3 (< 10 %). The FT-IR results corroborate the presence of siloxane (Si-O-Si) as an important functional group of quartz in the raw sand sample. The findings of the study reveals that the sand from the region is an important resource
for sourcing quartz as a primary material for vast industrial applications.
