Mordenite is a

zeolite Zeolites are microporous, crystalline aluminosilicate materials commonly used as commercial adsorbents and catalysts. They mainly consist of silicon, aluminium, oxygen, and have the general formula ･y where is either a metal ion or H+. These pos ...

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ( ...

with the chemical formula, ( Ca, Na₂, K₂) Al₂ Si₁₀ O₂₄·7 H₂O. and it is one of the six most abundant zeolites and is used commercially. It was first described in 1864 by

Henry How Henry How (11 July 1828 – 28 September 1879) was a British-Canadian chemist, geologist and mineralogist. Career In 1847, How and August Wilhelm von Hofmann were co-workers at the Royal College in London. How was a professor of chemistry and ...

. He named it after the small community of

Morden, Nova Scotia Morden is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in Kings County. The community was first known as "French Cross" after a cross marking Acadian refugees who fled the Expulsion of the Acadians in 1755. The village was later ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, along the

Bay of Fundy The Bay of Fundy (french: Baie de Fundy) is a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. It is an arm of the Gulf of Maine. Its extremely high tidal range is the hi ...

, where it was first found. Mordenite is

orthorhombic In crystallography, the orthorhombic crystal system is one of the 7 crystal systems. Orthorhombic lattices result from stretching a cubic lattice along two of its orthogonal pairs by two different factors, resulting in a rectangular prism with a r ...

(a,b,c unequal & all angles 90 degree). It crystallizes in the form of fibrous aggregates, masses, and vertically striated prismatic crystals. It may be colorless, white, or faintly yellow or pink. It has Mohs hardness of 5 and a density of 2.1 g/cm³. When it forms well developed crystals they are hairlike; very long, thin, and delicate.Mindat with location data
/ref> Mordenite’s molecular structure is a framework containing chains of five-membered rings of linked silicate and aluminate tetrahedra (four oxygen atoms arranged at the points of a triangular pyramid about a central silicon or aluminium atom). Its high ratio of

silicon Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic tab ...

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

atoms makes it more resistant to attack by acids than most other zeolites. Mordenite is one of the most abundant zeolites in altered volcanic deposits; it is found in volcanic rock such as

rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomi ...

, and

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

. It is associated with other zeolites such as

stilbite Stilbite is the name of a series of tectosilicate minerals of the zeolite group. Prior to 1997, stilbite was recognized as a mineral species, but a reclassification in 1997 by the International Mineralogical Association changed it to a series nam ...

and

heulandite Heulandite is the name of a series of tecto-silicate minerals of the zeolite group. Prior to 1997, heulandite was recognized as a mineral species, but a reclassification in 1997 by the International Mineralogical Association changed it to a ser ...

. Good examples have been found in

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, and

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

. It is also found in marine sediments, as in the Ural Mountains and in dikes where water has attacked and altered

volcanic glass Volcanic glass is the amorphous (uncrystallized) product of rapidly cooling magma. Like all types of glass, it is a state of matter intermediate between the closely packed, highly ordered array of a crystal and the highly disordered array of liqu ...

es, as on the Isle of Arran in Scotland."mordenite"
Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Access date 15 Apr. 2009

Use

* Synthetic Mordenite is used as a

catalyst Catalysis () is the process of increasing the rate of a chemical reaction by adding a substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed in the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recyc ...

in the petrochemical industry for the acid-catalyzed isomerisation of

alkanes In organic chemistry, an alkane, or paraffin (a historical trivial name that also has other meanings), is an acyclic saturated hydrocarbon. In other words, an alkane consists of hydrogen and carbon atoms arranged in a tree structure in which ...

and

aromatics Aromatic compounds, also known as "mono- and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons", are organic compounds containing one or more aromatic rings. The parent member of aromatic compounds is benzene. The word "aromatic" originates from the past groupin ...

. * In New Zealand mordenite-bearing zeolitic tuff is dried and crushed to produce a variety of products including

adsorbent Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms, ions or molecules from a gas, liquid or dissolved solid to a surface. This process creates a film of the ''adsorbate'' on the surface of the ''adsorbent''. This process differs from absorption, in which a ...

s for soaking up oil/chemical spills and animal wastes, animal feed supplements, water treatment, and sports turf and slow release fertilizer. * Sedimentary deposits of mordenite are present in several countries, especially in Bulgaria, Hungary, Japan and the United States. Quarried material is generally substantial, e.g., a recent estimate of the yearly production in Japan is 150,000 tons. * Apart from generic applications in the fields of agriculture and building industry (as

dimension stone Dimension stone is natural stone or rock that has been selected and finished (e.g., trimmed, cut, drilled, ground, or other) to specific sizes or shapes. Color, texture and pattern, and surface finish of the stone are also normal requirements. A ...

), uses are known as sorbent and

molecular sieve A molecular sieve is a material with pores (very small holes) of uniform size. These pore diameters are similar in size to small molecules, and thus large molecules cannot enter or be adsorbed, while smaller molecules can. As a mixture of molecu ...

Gas separation Gas separation can refer to any of a number of techniques used to separate gases, either to give multiple products or to purify a single product. Swing adsorption techniques Pressure swing adsorption Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) pressurizes ...

processes are reported for the production of high-grade O₂ from air by pressure-swing operating generators. Full-scale plants based on mordenite-rich tuffs have been operating in Japan since the end of the 1960.

References

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External links

Structure type MOR
Calcium minerals Sodium minerals Potassium minerals Aluminium minerals Zeolites Orthorhombic minerals Minerals in space group 36