moissanite
Sign in to saveMoissanite () is naturally occurring silicon carbide and its various crystalline polymorphs. It has the chemical formula SiC and is a rare mineral, discovered by the French chemist Henri Moissan in 1893. Silicon carbide or moissanite is useful for commercial and industrial applications due to its hardness, optical properties, and thermal conductivity.
Key facts
- Mineral.name
- Moissanite
- Mineral.category
- Mineral species
- Mineral.image
- Moissanite-USGS-20-1001d-14x-.jpg
- Mineral.imagesize
- 260px
- Mineral.formula
- SiC
- Mineral.IMAsymbol
- Moi
- Mineral.strunz
- 1.DA.05
- Mineral.system
- 6H polytype, most common: hexagonal
- Mineral.class
- 6H polytype: dihexagonal pyramidal (6mm) H-M symbol: (6mm)
- Mineral.symmetry
- 6H polytype: P63mc
- Mineral.color
- Colorless, green, yellow
- Mineral.habit
- Generally found as inclusions in other minerals
- Mineral.cleavage
- (0001) indistinct
- Mineral.fracture
- Conchoidal – fractures developed in brittle materials characterized by smoothly curving surfaces, e.g., quartz
- Mineral.mohs
- ~9.5
- Mineral.luster
- Adamantine to metallic
- Mineral.refractive
- nω = 2.654 nε = 2.967
- Mineral.birefringence
- 0.313 (6H form)
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
9 sectionsContents
- Background
- Geological occurrence
- Meteorites
- Physical properties
- Sources
- Applications
- See also
- References
- External links
Moissanite () is naturally occurring silicon carbide and its various crystalline polymorphs. It has the chemical formula SiC and is a rare mineral, discovered by the French chemist Henri Moissan in 1893. Silicon carbide or moissanite is useful for commercial and industrial applications due to its hardness, optical properties, and thermal conductivity.
== Background == The mineral moissanite was discovered by Henri Moissan while examining rock samples from what is now called Meteor Crater located near Canyon Diablo, Arizona, US in 1893. At first, he mistakenly identified the crystals as diamonds, but in 1904 he identified the crystals as silicon carbide. Artificial silicon carbide had been synthesized in the lab by Edward G. Acheson in 1891, just two years before Moissan's discovery.