Straczekite, a new calcium barium potassium vanadate mineral from Wilson Springs, Arkansas

Abstract

AbstractStraczekite, a new calcium barium potassium vanadate from Wilson Springs (formerly Potash Sulfur Springs), Arkansas, occurs as a rare secondary mineral in fibrous seams in gangue. The dark greenish-black crystals are very soft, thin laths up to 0.5 mm in length, forming thick masses. No single-crystal X-ray patterns could be obtained, but good electron diffraction patterns yielded a monoclinic unit cell in space group C2/m, C2, or Cm. The cell parameters were refined by least squares analysis of Guinier-Hägg X-ray powder data: a 11.679(2), b 3.6608(4), c 10.636(2)Å, β = 100.53(4)° (strongest lines are: 003, 3.486, 100; 001, 10.449, 50; 020 1.8306, 50; 01/510, 1.9437, 15; 111/03, 3.255, 10; 311/12, 2.492, 10; 021, 1.8030, 10). Chemical analysis yields the formula: (Ca0.39Ba0.31K0.33Na0.11)(V1.594+V6.315+Fe0.103+)O20.02(H2O)2.9. The calculated density is 3.21 g/cm3. The mineral conforms to a series of synthetic vanadium bronzes, typified by Ag1-xV2O5 of known structure. It represents a new series of layer vanadate minerals of general formula MxV8O20·yH2O, similar in properties but distinct from the hewettite series (MxV6O16·yH2O).