1986 Volume 26 Issue 4 Pages 263-280
Although only five decades passed since the first electron microscope was born in Germany in the year of 1932, during this period electron microscopy has made a great contribution to clay mineralogy. The recent electron microscope has been greatly developed in its ability, and is not only a microscope but a comprehensive analytical instrument which is able to detect and analyze almost all informations carried by various kinds of secondary rays radiated from specimens. This article reviews the recent studies of clay minerals, which have been made in Japan by transmission electron microscopy, with emphasis placed on what specimen preparation methods were employed in their studies. The studies conducted hitherto are categorized, into a few subjects from the view point of specimen preparation methods. The authors emphasized the importance of the use of the ion thining method for the study of clay minerals because the method has scarecely been used in the field in contrast with its active use in petrology.
Recent technological developements of high resolution analytical electron microscopes are also briefly reviewed, and it is mentioned what kinds of studies using it can be hoped in clay mineralogy.
