STED nanoscopy - A novel way to image the pore space of geological materials

STED nanoscopy (Stimulated Emission Depletion). which can resolve details far below the diffraction barrier has been applied hitherto preferentially to life sciences. The method is however also ideal for the investigation of geological matrices containing transparent minerals, an application tested here, to our knowledge, for the first time. The measurements on altered granitic rock and sedimentary clay rock, both containing very fine-grained phases, were conducted successfully. The STED fluorophore was dissolved in C-14-labelled methylmethacrylate (C-14-MMA) monomer which was polymerised within the rock matrix, thereby labelling the pore space in the geomaterials. Double labelling provided by the C-14-labelled MMA enables autoradiography and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), providing necessary complementary information for characterisation and quantification of porosity distributions and mineral and structure identification. Promising perspectives for further investigations of geological matrices by using different fluorophores and the optimisation of measuring procedures or even higher resolution are discussed. The combination of these different methods enlarges the observation scale of porosity from nanometre to centimetre scale.