imogolite
Sign in to saveImogolite is an aluminium silicate clay mineral with the chemical formula . It occurs in soils formed from volcanic ash and was first described in 1962 for an occurrence in Uemura, Kumamoto prefecture, Kyushu Region, Japan. Its name originates from the Japanese word , which refers to the brownish yellow soil derived from volcanic ash. It occurs together with allophane, quartz, cristobalite, gibbsite, vermiculite and limonite.
Key facts
- Mineral.name
- Imogolite
- Mineral.image
- Imogolite soil.jpg
- Mineral.caption
- Imogolite soil (brown) with fragments of transparent imogolite films
- Mineral.category
- Phyllosilicate minerals
- Mineral.IMAsymbol
- Imo
- Mineral.strunz
- 9.ED.20
- Mineral.system
- Tetragonal Unknown space group
- Mineral.color
- White, blue, green, brown, black
- Mineral.habit
- Conchoidal to earthy masses of microscopic threadlike particles and bundles of fine tubes, each about 20 Å in diameter
- Mineral.mohs
- 2–3
- Mineral.luster
- Vitreous, resinous, waxy
- Mineral.diaphaneity
- Transparent to translucent
- Mineral.gravity
- 2.7
- Mineral.opticalprop
- Isotropic
- Mineral.refractive
- n=1.47–1.51
via Wikipedia infobox
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Encyclopedic overview
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Imogolite is an aluminium silicate clay mineral with the chemical formula . It occurs in soils formed from volcanic ash and was first described in 1962 for an occurrence in Uemura, Kumamoto prefecture, Kyushu Region, Japan. Its name originates from the Japanese word , which refers to the brownish yellow soil derived from volcanic ash. It occurs together with allophane, quartz, cristobalite, gibbsite, vermiculite and limonite.
Imogolite consists of a network of nanotubes with an outer diameter of ca. 2 nm and an inner diameter of ca. 1 nm. The tube walls are formed by continuous (gibbsite) sheets and orthosilicate anions ( groups). Owing to its tubular structure, natural availability, and low toxicity, imogolite has potential applications in polymer composites, fuel gas storage, absorbents, and as a catalyst support in chemical catalysis.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “imogolite” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.