Bismoclite BiOCl from the Jean Baptiste mine, Lavrion area, Greece

  • Irene Liebhart (Speaker)
  • Branko Rieck (Contributor)
  • Manuela Zeug (Contributor)
  • Giester, G. (Contributor)

Activity: Talks and presentationsPoster presentationScience to Science

Description

Bismoclite was first discovered and described from a museum specimen No 4465 in the McGregor Museum, Kimberly. The sample is from Jakkalswater, South Africa (Mountain, 1935). Chemical analysis resulted in Bi2O3 89.41, Cl 13.67, less O=Cl2 3.08, sum 100 wt. % (Mountain, 1935). In the same year, Bannister & Hey (1935) synthesised the compound BiOCl and named it bismoclite. The crystal structure was solved on synthetic samples in space group P4/nmm, with unit cell data a = 3.887(5), c = 7.354(5) Å and refined to R = 9.17% (Keramidas et al. 1993). Furthermore, a sample from a Bi-Cu-Au deposit, Argentina was studied by infrared analysis, thermal analysis using DTA and TGA, chemical analysis using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and an instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), microscopy analysis using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and by pXRD (Testa et al. 2016).
Recently, rare bismoclite was discovered at the 2nd level of the Jean Baptiste Mine in the central part of the Agios Konstantinos area, Lavrion mining district, Attica, Greece. Natural bismoclite was investigated for the first time by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, confirming space group P4/nmm with unit cell parameters a = 3.887 (2), c = 7.357 (5) Å, Z = 2, V = 111.16 (14) Å3 and refined to final values R1 = 0.0134 and wR2 = 0.0363. Examined by Raman spectroscopy, the spectrum shows the most intense Raman band at 144 cm-1, smaller bands were observed at 198 and 396 cm-1.
Period17 Sep 2023
Event titleMinWien2023
Event typeConference
LocationWien, AustriaShow on map
Degree of RecognitionInternational