Chemistry:Agrellite

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Agrellite
Museo di mineralogia, pietre fluorescenti, agrellite 3.JPG
Agrellite showing fluorescence in ultraviolet light
General
CategoryInosilicates
Formula
(repeating unit)
NaCa2Si4O10F
Strunz classification9.DH.75
Crystal systemTriclinic
Crystal classPinacoidal (1)
(same H-M symbol)
Space groupP1
Identification
ColorWhite, grayish-white, greenish-white
Crystal habitLath - shaped like a small, thin plaster lath, rectangular in shape
Cleavageperfect [110]
Mohs scale hardness5.5
|re|er}}pearly
Streakwhite
Diaphaneitytranslucent
Specific gravity2.88
Optical propertiesbiaxial
Refractive indexnα = 1.567 nβ = 1.579 nγ = 1.581
Birefringenceδ = 0.014
References[1][2]

Agrellite (NaCa2Si4O10F) is a rare triclinic inosilicate mineral with four-periodic single chains of silica tetrahedra.

It is a white to grey translucent mineral, with a pearly luster and white streak. It has a Mohs hardness of 5.5 and a specific gravity of 2.8. Its type locality is the Kipawa Alkaline Complex, Quebec, Canada , where it occurs as tabular laths in pegmatite lenses.[4] Other localities include Murmansk Oblast, Russia, Dara-i-Pioz Glacier, Tajikistan, and Saima Complex, Liaoning, China.[4] Common associates at the type locality include zircon, eudialyte, vlasovite, miserite, mosandrite-(Ce), and calcite.[4]

Agrellite displays pink fluorescence strongly under shortwave and weakly under longwave ultraviolet light.[5][6] The fluorescent activator is dominantly Mn2+, with minor Eu2+, Sm3+, and Dy3+.[6]

It is named in honor of Stuart Olof Agrell (1913–1996), a British mineralogist at Cambridge University.

See also

References