Insights into the water status in hydrous minerals using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy

The determinations of water status incorporated in hydrous minerals are of considerable significances in geoscience fields. Coincidentally, the aqueous sensitivity of terahertz radiation has motivated numerous explorations in several cross-domain applications. Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy is employed as a major probing technique coupling of traditional detecting methods to uncover the mask of water status in copper sulfate pentahydrate as well as mineral quartz in this article. Based on the quantitative identification of water status in copper sulfate pentahydrate, the water incorporated in mineral quartz is verified qualitatively. Notable differences of optical constants originating from the water content are obtained for copper sulfate pentahydrate and mineral quartz. These present works indicate that terahertz technology can be considered as a promising method to satisfy the ever-increasing requirements in hydrous mineral analyses.