Quantitative Mineralogical Characterization of Oregon Erionite

Erionite has been classified as Group-I Human Carcinogen by the IARC Working Group. Fibrogenetic potential of erionite varies from low to high yield of mesothelioma. This may require quantitative characterization of physicochemical properties of erionite before any experimental design. The toxicity of the mineral is such that quantitative characterization of erionite is extremely important. Yet, often the erionite specimens were incompletely or incorrectly characterized throwing doubt on the results of the work. For example, none of the Turkish erionite published until recently had balance error (E%) less than 10%, and Mg cation of the type specimen of erionite-Ca from Maze, Niigita Prefecture, Japan is more than 0.8. In the present study, erionite sample near Rome, Oregon have been quantitatively characterized using powder x-ray diffraction, Reitveld refinement, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma - mass spectroscopy, and Massbauer spectroscopy. The cell parameters of the erionite-K from Oregon is computed as a=13.2217(2) Å and c=15.0671 Å; chemical composition of the erionite as major oxides, rare earth elements and other trace elements, are characterized quantitatively. Crystal chemistries of the erionite are computed based upon the quidelines of the IMAA zeolite report of 1997.