Ye'elimite is the naturally occurring form of anhydrous calcium sulfoaluminate, . It gets its name from Har Ye'elim in
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
in the
Hatrurim Basin west of the
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank ...
where it was first found in nature by
Shulamit Gross
Shulamit Gross (Hebrew: שולמית גרוס; lived 1 October 1923 – 19 Sep 2012) was an Israeli mineralogist and geologist who studied the Hatrurim Formation.
Biography
Gross was born as Shulamit Lifszyc in Grodno, Poland (today, Hrodna, B ...
, an Israeli mineralogist and geologist who studied the
Hatrurim Formation
The Hatrurim Formation or ''Mottled Zone'' is a geologic formation with outcrops all around the Dead Sea Basin: in the Negev Desert in Israel, in the Judaean Desert on the West Bank, and in western Jordan. It includes late Cretaceous to Eocene aged ...
.
[Handbook of Mineralogy]
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The mineral is cubic, with 16 formula units per unit cell
In geometry, biology, mineralogy and solid state physics, a unit cell is a repeating unit formed by the vectors spanning the points of a lattice. Despite its suggestive name, the unit cell (unlike a unit vector, for example) does not necessaril ...
, and a cell dimension of 1.8392 nm, and is readily detected and quantified in mixtures by powder x-ray diffraction
X-ray crystallography is the experimental science determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline structure causes a beam of incident X-rays to diffract into many specific directions. By measuring the angles ...
.
Occurrence in cement
It is alternatively called "Klein's Compound", after Alexander Klein of the University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
, who experimented with sulfoaluminate cement
A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...
s around 1960, although it was first described in 1957 by Ragozina. Ye'elimite is most commonly encountered as a constituent of sulfoaluminate cements, in which it is manufactured on the million-tonne-per-annum scale. It also occasionally occurs adventitiously in Portland-type cements.[A E Moore, ''Cement Technology'', 7 (1976) pp 85, 134] It is thus an anhydrous mineral of the cement clinker
200px, Typical clinker nodules
200px, Hot clinker
Cement clinker is a solid material produced in the manufacture of Portland cement as an intermediary product. Clinker occurs as lumps or nodules, usually to in diameter. It is produced by sinte ...
whose idealized oxide formula is also written in the cement chemist notation
Cement chemist notation (CCN) was developed to simplify the formulas cement chemists use on a daily basis. It is a shorthand way of writing the chemical formula of oxides of calcium, silicon, and various metals.
Abbreviations of oxides
The main o ...
(CCN). On hydration Hydration may refer to:
* Hydrate, a substance that contains water
* Hydration enthalpy, energy released through hydrating a substance
* Hydration reaction, a chemical addition reaction where a hydroxyl group and proton are added to a compound
* ...
in the presence of calcium and sulfate ions, it forms the insoluble, fibrous mineral ettringite
Ettringite is a hydrous calcium aluminium sulfate mineral with formula: . It is a colorless to yellow mineral crystallizing in the trigonal system. The prismatic crystals are typically colorless, turning white on partial dehydration. It is part of ...
, which provides the strength in sulfoaluminate concretes, and/or monosulfoaluminate, and aluminium hydroxide
Aluminium hydroxide, Al(OH)3, is found in nature as the mineral gibbsite (also known as hydrargillite) and its three much rarer polymorphs: bayerite, doyleite, and nordstrandite. Aluminium hydroxide is amphoteric, i.e., it has both basic and ...
.
It is manufactured by heating the appropriate quantities of finely-ground alumina, calcium carbonate and calcium sulfate
Calcium sulfate (or calcium sulphate) is the inorganic compound with the formula CaSO4 and related hydrates. In the form of γ-anhydrite (the anhydrous form), it is used as a desiccant. One particular hydrate is better known as plaster of Pari ...
to between 1100 and 1300 °C, preferably in the presence of small quantities of fluxing materials, such as Fe2O3. On heating above 1350 °C, ye'elimite begins to decompose to tricalcium aluminate
Tricalcium aluminate Ca3Al2O6, often formulated as 3CaO·Al2O3 to highlight the proportions of the oxides from which it is made, is the most basic of the calcium aluminates. It does not occur in nature, but is an important mineral phase in Portl ...
, calcium oxide
Calcium oxide (CaO), commonly known as quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. It is a white, Caustic (substance), caustic, alkaline, crystalline solid at room temperature. The broadly used term "''lime (material), lime''" co ...
, sulfur dioxide
Sulfur dioxide (IUPAC-recommended spelling) or sulphur dioxide (traditional Commonwealth English) is the chemical compound with the formula . It is a toxic gas responsible for the odor of burnt matches. It is released naturally by volcanic activ ...
and oxygen
Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...
.
See also
* Other rare minerals also discovered in the Hatrurim Formation
The Hatrurim Formation or ''Mottled Zone'' is a geologic formation with outcrops all around the Dead Sea Basin: in the Negev Desert in Israel, in the Judaean Desert on the West Bank, and in western Jordan. It includes late Cretaceous to Eocene aged ...
:
** Brownmillerite
Brownmillerite is a rare oxide mineral with chemical formula . It is named for Lorrin Thomas Brownmiller (1902–1990), chief chemist of the Alpha Portland Cement Company, Easton, Pennsylvania.
Discovery and occurrence
The chemical compound ...
()
** Gehlenite
Gehlenite, (Ca2Al lSiO7, is a sorosilicate, Al-rich endmember of the melilite complete solid solution series with akermanite.Deer et al., 1993
The type locality is in the Monzoni Mountains, Fassa Valley in Trentino in Italy, and is named after ...
()
* Other phases also present in the cement clinker
200px, Typical clinker nodules
200px, Hot clinker
Cement clinker is a solid material produced in the manufacture of Portland cement as an intermediary product. Clinker occurs as lumps or nodules, usually to in diameter. It is produced by sinte ...
:
** Larnite
Larnite is a calcium silicate mineral with formula: Ca2SiO4. It is the calcium member of the olivine group of minerals.
It was first described from an occurrence at Scawt Hill, Larne, Northern Ireland in 1929 by Cecil Edgar Tilley and named for ...
: calcium olivine (, , or belite
Belite is an industrial mineral important in Portland cement manufacture. Its main constituent is dicalcium silicate, Ca2SiO4, sometimes formulated as 2 CaO · SiO2 (C2S in cement chemist notation).
Etymology
The name was given by Törnebohm in ...
)
** Mayenite
Chlormayenite (after Mayen, Germany), Ca12Al14O32 4Cl2 is a rare calcium aluminium oxide mineral of cubic symmetry.
It was originally reported from Eifel volcanic complex (Germany) in 1964. It is also found at pyrometamorphic sites such as i ...
()
* Calcium aluminates
Calcium aluminates are a range of materials obtained by heating calcium oxide and aluminium oxide together at high temperatures. They are encountered in the manufacture of refractories and cements.
The stable phases shown in the phase diagram ...
:
** Monocalcium aluminate
Monocalcium aluminate (CaAl2O4) is one of the series of calcium aluminates. It does occur in nature, although only very rarely, as two polymorphs known as krotite and dmitryivanovite, both from meteorites. It is important in the composition of cal ...
(CA)
** Tricalcium aluminate
Tricalcium aluminate Ca3Al2O6, often formulated as 3CaO·Al2O3 to highlight the proportions of the oxides from which it is made, is the most basic of the calcium aluminates. It does not occur in nature, but is an important mineral phase in Portl ...
()
** Dodecacalcium hepta-aluminate
Dodecacalcium hepta-aluminate (12CaO·7Al2O3, Ca12Al14O33 or ) is an inorganic solid that occurs rarely in nature as the mineral mayenite. It is an important phase in calcium aluminate cements and is an intermediate in the manufacture of Portland ...
()
* Calcium aluminate cements
Calcium aluminate cements are cements consisting predominantly of hydraulic calcium aluminates. Alternative names are "aluminous cement", "high-alumina cement" and "Ciment fondu" in French. They are used in a number of small-scale, specialized ap ...
References
Aluminates
Aluminium minerals
Calcium minerals
Cement
Concrete
Sulfate minerals
Cubic minerals
Minerals in space group 214
{{sulfate-mineral-stub