Proton Irradiation Experiments: DRIFTS Spectra of Apollo 17 soil 78421 and a Fused Silica Reference

Hydroxylation by solar wind proton has been simulated in our laboratory at NASA GSFC on Apollo 17 lunar soil 78421, a very mature soil that is rich with agglutinates (68%). A 2 keV H2+ ion beam was used to simulate proton implantation on 78421 and on a crushed fused silica control sample. For these experiments, the changes in the SiOH (hydroxyl) stretching band near 3 microns induced by proton implantation were monitored using diffuse reflectance FTIR spectroscopy.