The rise in anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has caused the pursuit of adequate methods to alleviate the resulting strain on the world's ecosystem. A promising strategy is the geological sequestration of carbon dioxide, in which carbon dioxide emitted from large point sources is injected underground for storage. Under storage, carbon dioxide trapped as a carbonate mineral may be stable for geological time periods.

Experiments were conducted to test the potential of ferric-bearing minerals to sequester carbon as a ferrous carbonate mineral (siderite). The formation of siderite requires the reduction of ferric ions which may be achieved by the co-injection of H₂S or SO₂ contaminants with CO ₂. Both ferrihydrite and hematite nanoparticles were exposed to an aqueous Na₂S solution in the presence of supercritical CO ₂ (scCO₂) and were analyzed in situ by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). In situ ATR-FTIR indicated that the formation of siderite occurred on the order of minutes for ferrihydrite and hematite nanoparticles. Particles were analyzed post-reaction with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron microscopy. XRD results indicated that ferrihydrite reacted completely to form siderite and elemental sulfur after 24 h at 100 °C, while hematite only partially reacted to form siderite and pyrite after 24 h at 70 °C. Additionally, hematite nanoparticles were exposed to H₂S and scCO ₂ in a series of batch reactions, and the reaction products were determined by XRD as a function of CO₂ and H₂S partial pressures, alkalinity, salinity, time, and temperature.