Marcasite jewelry, made from small faceted pieces of pyrite, often set in silver, was known since ancient times and was popular in the Victorian era. ![]() Pyrite is used to make marcasite jewelry. More recent efforts are working toward thin-film solar cells made entirely of pyrite. Synthetic iron sulfide was used with copper sulfide to create the photovoltaic material. Pyrite has been proposed as an abundant, non-toxic, inexpensive material in low-cost photovoltaic solar panels. Pyrite detectors can be as sensitive as a modern 1N34A germanium diode detector. Pyrite detectors occupied a midway point between galena detectors and the more mechanically complicated perikon mineral pairs. Until the vacuum tube matured, the crystal detector was the most sensitive and dependable detector available-with considerable variation between mineral types and even individual samples within a particular type of mineral. ĭuring the early years of the 20th century, pyrite was used as a mineral detector in radio receivers, and is still used by crystal radio hobbyists. ![]() Pure pyrite is naturally n-type, in both crystal and thin-film forms, potentially due to sulfur vacancies in the pyrite crystal structure acting as n-dopants. Pyrite is a semiconductor material with a band gap of 0.95 eV. Ī newer commercial use for pyrite is as the cathode material in Energizer brand non-rechargeable lithium metal batteries. Thermal decomposition of pyrite into FeS ( iron(II) sulfide) and elemental sulfur starts at 540 ☌ (1,004 ☏) at around 700 ☌ (1,292 ☏), p S 2 is about 1 atm. Pyrite remains in commercial use for the production of sulfur dioxide, for use in such applications as the paper industry, and in the manufacture of sulfuric acid. By the 19th century, it had become the dominant method. In the 15th century, new methods of such leaching began to replace the burning of sulfur as a source of sulfuric acid. The acidic runoff from the heap was then boiled with iron to produce iron sulfate. Iron pyrite was heaped up and allowed to weather (an example of an early form of heap leaching). Pyrite has been used since classical times to manufacture copperas ( ferrous sulfate). Pyrite is used with flintstone and a form of tinder made of stringybark by the Kaurna people, people of South Australia, as a traditional method of starting fires. Pyrite enjoyed brief popularity in the 16th and 17th centuries as a source of ignition in early firearms, most notably the wheellock, where a sample of pyrite was placed against a circular file to strike the sparks needed to fire the gun. Uses An abandoned pyrite mine near Pernek in Slovakia It has been suggested that the presence of both gold and arsenic is a case of coupled substitution but as of 1997 the chemical state of the gold remained controversial. A substantial proportion of the gold is "invisible gold" incorporated into the pyrite (see Carlin-type gold deposit). Despite being nicknamed "fool's gold", pyrite is sometimes found in association with small quantities of gold. Pyrite is usually found associated with other sulfides or oxides in quartz veins, sedimentary rock, and metamorphic rock, as well as in coal beds and as a replacement mineral in fossils, but has also been identified in the sclerites of scaly-foot gastropods. 1550, the term had become a generic term for all of the sulfide minerals. ![]() In ancient Roman times, this name was applied to several types of stone that would create sparks when struck against steel Pliny the Elder described one of them as being brassy, almost certainly a reference to what is now called pyrite. ![]() The name pyrite is derived from the Greek πυρίτης λίθος ( pyritēs lithos), 'stone or mineral which strikes fire', in turn from πῦρ ( pyr), 'fire'. The color has also led to the nicknames brass, brazzle, and brazil, primarily used to refer to pyrite found in coal. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue give it a superficial resemblance to gold, hence the well-known nickname of fool's gold. Pyrite cubic crystals on marl from Navajún, La Rioja, Spain (size: 95 by 78 millimetres, 512 grams main crystal: 31 millimetres on edge) Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. The mineral pyrite ( / ˈ p aɪ r aɪ t/), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S 2 (iron (II) disulfide). Often inter-grown, massive, radiated, granular, globular, and stalactitic. Pale brass-yellow reflective tarnishes darker and iridescentĬubic, faces may be striated, but also frequently octahedral and pyritohedral. Intergrowth of lustrous, cubic crystals of pyrite, with some surfaces showing characteristic striations, from Huanzala mine, Ancash, Peru.
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