Luminescent, Structural, and Thermal Properties of the Unusual “Anatolian” Diaspore (Zultanite) from Turkey

Abstract

ABSTRACT Results are presented for the cathodoluminescence (CL) probe of an environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) with an energy-dispersive spectrometry analyzer (EDS), thermoluminescence (TL), thermo X-ray diffraction in situ (TXRD), and simultaneous differential thermal analysis and thermogravimetric analysis (DTA/TGA) techniques of gem-quality zultanite samples collected from the Muğla region of southwest Turkey. Micro-Raman measurements were also performed on different zultanite orientations and preheated aliquots to study the spectral phase transition diaspore-corundum also detected by the other thermal techniques in the 450°C–500°C thermal range. The thermal phenomena of TL are synchronous with this dehydroxylation process, involving consecutive breaking-linking bonds of Al-O, Cr-O, Fe-O, Al-OH, Cr-OH, and Fe-OH, including the formation of hydrolyzed ions such , and and redox reactions. Assuming that zultanite oxygen atoms are distributed as a hexagonal close packed layer, the experimental spectrum CL of zultanite is characteristic of the 2E → 4A2 transitions of substitutional Cr3+ luminescent centers in positions of Al3+ in sixfold coordination.