Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-45l2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T14:28:01.087Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Structural evolution of aqueous mercury sulphide precipitates: energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

A. M. T. Bell ,
R. A. D. Pattrick  and
D. J. Vaughan
A. M. T. Bell
Affiliation:
Synchrotron Radiation Source, STFC Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington WA4 4AD, UK
R. A. D. Pattrick*
Affiliation:
School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Science, and Williamson Research Centre for Molecular Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
D. J. Vaughan
Affiliation:
School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Science, and Williamson Research Centre for Molecular Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
*
*E-mail: richard.pattrick@manchester.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In situ, high-temperature energy-dispersive X-ray powder diffraction (EDXRD) data have been collected on synthetic and a natural sample of mercury sulphide (HgS). These measurements were made between temperatures of 295 and 798 K. Synthetic samples of HgS were prepared by reaction between sulphide and mercury in aqueous solution. In a subsequently dried and aged synthetic HgS sample, heated in vacuo, there is a change from a poorly crystalline pseudocubic material into a well crystalline cubic material in the temperature region 583–623 K. At higher temperature (748 K), there is evidence for a partial phase transition to the high temperature hypercinnabar HgS structure. In a neoformed synthetic sample, heated in a sealed Ti container, the initial ‘pseudocubic’ metacinnabar phase partially transforms to a previously unknown phase (XHgS) in the temperature range 467–522 K. This phase disappears at 527 K, and the metacinnabar phase changes to a well crystalline cubic phase; cinnabar develops at 542 K. The proportion of cinnabar continues to increase up to 647 K. Both metacinnabar and cinnabar phases are retained on cooling. No phase transitions were observed for the natural cinnabar sample.

Keywords

cinnabarmetacinnabarmercury sulphidephase transitionssynchrotron radiationX-ray diffraction
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 74 , Issue 1 , February 2010 , pp. 85 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

Current address: DESY/HASYLAB, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany

References

Barnes, P., Jupe, A.C., Colston, S.L., Jacques, S.D., Grant, A., Rathbone, T., Miller, M., Clark, S.M. and Cernik, R.J. (1998) A new three-angle energy-dispersive diffractometer. Nuclear Instruments & Methods. In: Physics Research Section B-Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms. 134, 310–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnett, M.O., Harris, L.A., Turner, R.R., Stevenson, R.J., Henson, T.J., Melton, R.C. and Hoffman, D.P. (1997) Formation of mercuric sulfide in soil. Environmental Science and Technology, 31, 3037–3043.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benning, L.G., Wilkin, R.T. and Barnes, H.L. (2000) Reaction pathways in the Fe-S system below 100°C. Chemical Geology, 167, 25–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boctor, N.Z., Shieh, Y.N. and Kullerud, G. (1987) Mercury ores from the New Idria Mining District, California: geochemical and stable isotope studies. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 51, 1705–1715.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charnock, J.M., Moyes, L.N., Pattrick, R.A.D., Mosselmans, J.F.W., Vaughan, D.J. and Livens, F.R. (2003) The structural evolution of mercury sulphide precipitate: an XAS and XRD study. American Mineralogist, 88, 1197–1203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheary, R.W. and Coelho, A.A. (1996) Program XFIT deposited in CCP14 Powder Diffraction Library. Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington, UK.Google Scholar
Clark, S.M. (1996) A new energy-dispersive powder diffraction facility at the SRS. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 381, 161–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, S.M., Cernik, R.J., Grant, A., York, S., Atkinson, P.A., Gallagher, A., Stokes, D.G., Gregory, S.R., Harris, N., Smith, W., Hancock, M., Miller, M.C., Ackroyd, K., Farrow, R., Frances, R. and O'Hare, D. (1996) A new white beam powder diffraction facility at the Daresbury Laboratory synchrotron radiation source. Materials Science Forum, 228, 213–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickson, F.W. and Tunnel, G. (1959) The stability relations of cinnabar and metacinnabar. American Mineralogist, 44, 471–487.Google Scholar
Dini, A., Benvenuti, M., Lattanzi, P. and Tanelli, G. (1995) Mineral assemblages in the Hg-Zn-(Fe)-S system at Levigliani, Tuscany, Italy. European Journal of Mineralogy, 7, 417-27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ford, P.J., Miller, A.J., Saunders, G.A., Yogurtcu, Y.K., Furdyna, J.K. and Jaczynski, M. (1982) The effect of pressure on the elastic constants of mercury selenide up to the phase transition. Journal of Physics C: Solid State Physics, 15, 657-71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holland, T.J.B. and Redfern, S.A.T. (1997) Unit cell refinement from powder diffraction data: The use of regression diagnostics. Mineralogical Magazine, 61, 65–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lennie, A.R., Redfern, S.A.T., Champness, P.E., Stoddart, C.P., Schofield, P.F. and Vaughan, D.J. (1997) Transformation of mackinawite to greigite: an in situ X-ray powder diffraction and transmission electron microscope study. American Mineralogist, 82, 302–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lennie, A.R., Charnock, J.M. and Pattrick, R.A.D. (2003) Structure of mercury(II)-sulphur complexes by EXAFS spectroscopic measurements. Chemical Geology, 199, 199–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luther, G.W. III, Theberge, S.M. and Rickard, D.T. (1999) Evidence for aqueous clusters as intermediates during zinc sulfide formation. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 63, 3159–3169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McMahon, M.I., Nelmes, R.J., Liu, H. and Belmonte, S.A. (1996) Hidden high-to-low cristobalite type transition in HgSe and HgTe at high pressure. Physical Review Letters, 77, 1781–1784.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Munir, Z.A., Kashkooli, I.Y. and Street, G.B. (1973) Sublimation of IIB-VIA compounds. V. Relative thermal stability and heat of transformation of black mercury sulfide (metacinnabar). High Temperature Science, 5, 8–15.Google Scholar
Pattrick, R.A.D., Mosselmans, J.F.W., Charnock, J.M., England, K.E.R., Helz, G.R., Garner, C.D. and Vaughan, D.J. (1997) The structure of amorphous copper sulphide precipitates: an X-ray absorption study. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 61, 2023–2036.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Potter, R.W. and Barnes, H.L. (1978) Phase relations in the binary Hg-S. American Mineralogist, 63, 1143–1152.Google Scholar
Rickard, D. (1995) Kinetics of FeS precipitation: Part 1. Competing reaction mechanisms. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 59, 4367–4379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodic, D., Spasojevic, V., Bajorek, A. and Onnerud, P. (1996) Similarity of structure properties of Hg1–x Mn x S and Cd1–x Mn x S (structure properties of HgMnS and CdMnS). Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, 152, 159–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shchennikov, V.V., Ovsyannikov, S.V. and Frolova, N.Yu. (2003) High-pressure study of ternary mercury chalcogenides. Phase transitions, mechanical and electrical properties. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 36, 2021–2026.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, M. and Gontier, S. (1999) Program DLConvert deposited in CCP14 Powder Diffraction Library. Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington, UK.Google Scholar
Spycher, N.F. and Reed, M.H. (1989) Evolution of a broadlands-type epithermal ore fluid along alternative P-T paths; implications for the transport and deposition of base, precious, and volatile metals. Economic Geology, 84, 328–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tauson, V.L. and Abramovich, M.G. (1985) Theory of the phase size effect and its observation in mercuric sulfide. Geokhimiya, 11, 1602–1613.Google Scholar
Yu, S.C., Spain, I.L. and Skelton, E.F. (1981) Crystal structures and phase transformations of mercury chalcogenide minerals at high pressure. Zhongguo Dizhi Xuehui Huikan, 24, 21–27.Google Scholar
Zeng, J.-H., Yang, J. and Qian, Y.-T. (2001) A novel morphology controllable preparation method to HgS. Materials Research Bulletin, 36, 343–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar