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spodumene for the last time

updated sun 31 mar 96

 

Dagmara Berztiss on wed 13 mar 96

>According to the Merck Index published by Merck Laboratories, spodumene is
>lithium aluminum sulfate. According to the CRC Handbood of Chemistry and
>Physics, spodumene is lithium aluminum silicate. I defer to the geologists
>and believe that the CRC is actually correct. Both of these books are
>considered to be excellant references and I have jotted a note off to Merck
>inquiring into their difference of opinion. The suprise to me is that the
>Merck is more readily used as a resource than the CRC and I would expect them
>to be accurate. But I have have strong suspicion they are wrong. My
>apologies to Steven and Bob. Sorry, Joanne.

According to "Introduction to Ceramics" by W.D. Kingery, H.K. Bowen and
D.R. Uhlmann:

spodumene is LiAl(SiO3)2 i.e. a lithium aluminum silicate

I would trust this book (and the CRC Handbook)

Dagmara

WeinhardtA@aol.com on thu 14 mar 96

Beating a dead horse perhaps, but Daniel Rhodes also agrees in Clay and
Glazes for the Potter. Li2O.Al2O3.4SiO2, a lithium feldspar. I'm no chemist
but to be a sulfate shouldn't there be some sulfur in there somewhere. Since
there isn't any, I should think the case closed. But as I said before, I'm
no chemist.

Tom Buck on thu 14 mar 96

Please note, if you have been following the question of Spodumene
composition, that we all refer to handbooks for data on chemical matters.
So maybe a typo happened? Here is the formula for spodumene as a pure
substance:
LiAl(SiO3)2
What happens if the typesetter forgets the "i" in this formula? Sulfate
it is. Goodday. TomB