Database of luminescent Minerals

IDRIALITE

Chemical Formula: C₂₂H₁₄

Familly: Organic

Status: IMA-GP

Crystal System: Orthorhombic

Mineral for Display: No

Luminescence:

Daylight Picture

IDRIALITE,
Hernik mine, East Slovakia, 3.5 cm wide
Photo and Copyright: Paul Garland
Pictures on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/fluorescent-minerals/pool/55922094@N00/
Used with permission of the author

Short Waves Pictures (254nm)

IDRIALITE under UVSW,
Hernik mine, East Slovakia, 3.5 cm wide
Photo and Copyright: Paul Garland
Pictures on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/fluorescent-minerals/pool/55922094@N00/
Used with permission of the author

Galerie de photos:

     To the gallery (3 images in the gallery)

Phosphorescence (in the common meaning of the term) seen by naked eye:

Comments:

Identical to dimethylbenzphenanthrene (Handbook of Mineralogy) but possibly a complex mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH).

Raman spectroscopy studies indicate that it may be a mixture of complex hydrocarbons including benzonaphthothiophenes (chemical formula: C₁₆H₁₀S) and dinaphthothiophenes (chemical formula: C₂₀H₁₂S)

Approximate abundance of PAHs contained in idrialite from Skaggs Springs (Wise et al. 1986) : picene [40%], chrysene [7%], benzo-phenanthro-thiophene [10%], dibenzo-carbazole [trace], dibenzo-fluorene [33%], indeno-fluorene [7%], and benzo-indeno-fluorene [4%].

Potentially dangerous substance: the PAH contened in Idrialite are toxic.

Main Activator(s) and spectrum:

Most Common Activator: Intrinsic organic material

Peaks in the spectrum (nm):

Peaks at: 454nm, 482nm, 512nm, 544nm, 597nm ;

  To the spectrum gallery (2 spectra in the gallery)

Comments on activators and spectra:

Blue luminescence due to the two linearly annelated benzene rings characteristic of aromatic compound (singlet-singlet electron transition within the benzene rings.Spectral lines (cm^-1): 250, 235, 222, 208;

Best Locality for luminescence(*):

• Skaggs Springs Mine, Skaggs Springs, Warm Springs Dam, Coast Range, Sonoma Co., California, USA;
• Hg deposit, Idria, Kraina, Slovenia, former Yugoslavia;
• Culver-Baer Mine, North Fork Little Sulphur Creek, Cloverdale, West Mayacmas District, Mayacmas Mts, Sonoma Co., California, USA;
• Great Western Mine, Great Western-Mirabel group, Middletown, East Mayacmas District, Mayacmas Mts, Lake Co., California, USA;
• Merník, Vranov nad Topľou Co., Prešov Region, Slovakia;

(*)Data are not exhaustive and are limited to the most important localities for fluorescence

Bibliographical Reference for luminescence:

• The Henkel Glossary of Fluorescent Minerals, Dr. Gerhard Henkel, Published by the FMS, 1989 ,
• Fluorescence: Gems and Minerals Under Ultraviolet Light, Manuel Robbins, 1994, Geoscience Press, ISBN 0-945005-13-X ,
• Luminescent Spectra of Minerals, Boris S. Gorobets and Alexandre A. Rogojine, Moscow, 2002 ,

Luminescence Reference on internet:

• The crystal structure, origin, and formation of idrialite (C22H14): Inferences from the microbeam and bulk analyses, Akuya Echigo, Mitsuyoshi Kimata, Teruyuki Maruoka, Masahiro Shimizu, and Norimasa Nishida, American Mineralogist, Volume 94, pages 1325–1332, 2009
• https://www.mindat.org/min-2003.html
• http://www.handbookofmineralogy.com/pdfs/idrialite.pdf

 

Images:

 

• Skaggs Springs Mine, Ca, USA: http://www.mindat.org/photo-263000.html
• Culver-Baer Mine, California, USA: http://www.mindat.org/photo-429039.html

Mineralogical Reference on internet:

  http://www.mindat.org/show.php?name=Idrialite

  http://webmineral.com/data/Idrialite.shtml

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