Hafnon is a hafnium nesosilicate mineral with the idealized chemical formula HfSiO4. It is the mineral form of Hafnium silicate and one of the few known minerals with essential hafnium.
Chemistry
Hafnon forms a solid solution series with its zirconium counterpart, zircon (ZrSiO4). Several more
or (Hf,Zr,Th,U,Y)SiO4.[2] In natural part of the zirconium is replaced by the very similar hafnium and so natural zircon is never pure ZrSiO4. A zircon with 100% hafnium substitution can be made synthetically and is hafnon.
Hafnon occurs as transparent red to red orange tetragonal crystals with a hardness of 7.5.[3][4]
Hafnon occurs naturally in tantalum-bearing granite pegmatites in the Zambezia district, Mozambique and in weathered pegmatites at Mount Holland, Western Australia.[5] It has also been reported from locations in Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba, Canada; North Carolina, United States; and in Zimbabwe.[3]
References
- ^ Warr, L.N. (2021). "IMA–CNMNC approved mineral symbols". Mineralogical Magazine. 85 (3): 291–320. Bibcode:2021MinM...85..291W. doi:10.1180/mgm.2021.43. S2CID 235729616.
- ^ http://www.minerals.net/mineral/silicate/neso/zircon/hafnon.htm Minerals.net
- ^ a b http://www.mindat.org/min-1792.html Mindat
- ^ "Hafnon Mineral Data". webmineral.com. Retrieved 2021-01-31.
- ^ http://www.handbookofmineralogy.org/pdfs/Hafnon.PDF Archived 2021-10-20 at the Wayback Machine Handbook of Mineralogy
- Emsley, John. Nature's Building Blocks. Oxford, 2001. ISBN 0-19-850341-5
- J. A. Speer, B. J. Cooper (1982). "Crystal structure of synthetic hafnon, HfSiO4, comparison with zircon and the actinide orthosilicates" (PDF). American Mineralogist. 67: 804–808.