Plattnerite is an

oxide mineral The oxide mineral class includes those minerals in which the oxide anion (O2−) is bonded to one or more metal alloys. The hydroxide-bearing minerals are typically included in the oxide class. Minerals with complex anion groups such as the sil ...

and is the beta crystalline form of lead dioxide (β-PbO₂), scrutinyite being the other, alpha form. It was first reported in 1845 and named after German mineralogist Karl Friedrich Plattner. Plattnerite forms bundles of dark needle-like crystals on various minerals; the crystals are hard and brittle and have tetragonal symmetry.

Occurrence

Plattnerite is found in numerous arid locations in North America (US and

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

), most of Europe, Asia (

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and

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), Africa (

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) and Southern and Western

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It occurs in weathered

hydrothermal Hydrothermal circulation in its most general sense is the circulation of hot water (Ancient Greek ὕδωρ, ''water'',Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with th ...

base-metal deposits as hay-like bundles of dark prismatic crystals with a length of a few millimeters; the bundles grow on, or sometimes within various minerals, including

cerussite Cerussite (also known as lead carbonate or white lead ore) is a mineral consisting of lead carbonate with the chemical formula PbCO3, and is an important ore of lead. The name is from the Latin ''cerussa'', white lead. ''Cerussa nativa'' was ...

smithsonite Smithsonite, also known as zinc spar, is the mineral form of zinc carbonate ( Zn CO3). Historically, smithsonite was identified with hemimorphite before it was realized that they were two different minerals. The two minerals are very similar in a ...

hemimorphite Hemimorphite is the chemical compound Zinc, Zn4(Pyrosilicate, Si2O7)(Hydroxide, OH)2Water of crystallization, ·H2O, a component of mineral Calamine (mineral), calamine. It is a silicate mineral which, together with smithsonite (ZnCO3), has bee ...

, leadhillite,

hydrozincite Hydrozincite, also known as zinc bloom or marionite, is a white carbonate mineral consisting of Zn5( CO3)2( OH)6. It is usually found in massive rather than crystalline form. It occurs as an oxidation product of zinc ores and as post mine inc ...

rosasite Rosasite is a carbonate mineral with minor potential for use as a zinc and copper ore. Chemically, it is a copper zinc carbonate hydroxide with a copper to zinc ratio of 3:2, occurring in the secondary oxidation zone of copper-zinc deposits. It wa ...

aurichalcite Aurichalcite is a carbonate mineral, usually found as a secondary mineral in copper and zinc deposits. Its chemical formula is . The zinc to copper ratio is about 5:4. Copper (Cu2+) gives aurichalcite its green-blue colors. Occurrence Aurichalci ...

, murdochite,

limonite Limonite () is an iron ore consisting of a mixture of hydrated iron(III) oxide-hydroxides in varying composition. The generic formula is frequently written as , although this is not entirely accurate as the ratio of oxide to hydroxide can vary qu ...

, pyromorphite,

wulfenite Wulfenite is a lead molybdate mineral with the formula Pb Mo O4. It often occurs as thin tabular crystals with a bright orange-red to yellow-orange color, sometimes brown, although the color can be highly variable. In its yellow form it is some ...

calcite Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ...

and

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

Properties and applications

Basic properties of plattnerite were described in 1845.Haidinger W (1845
Zweite Klasse: Geogenide. II. Ordnung. Baryte VII. Bleibaryt. Plattnerit.
p. 500 in Handbuch der Bestimmenden Mineralogie Bei Braumüller and Seidel Wien pp. 499-506 (in German) Already then, the mineral was known under its name, given to honor Karl Friedrich Plattner (1800–1858), professor of metallurgy and assaying at the Mining Academy in

Freiberg, Saxony Freiberg () is a college town, university and former mining town in Saxony, Germany, with around 41,000 inhabitants. The city lies in the foreland of the Ore Mountains, in the Saxon urbanization axis, which runs along the northern edge of the ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Its crystal structure was refined later on synthetic samples. Plattnerite belongs to the

rutile Rutile is an oxide mineral composed of titanium dioxide (TiO2), the most common natural form of TiO2. Rarer polymorphs of TiO2 are known, including anatase, akaogiite, and brookite. Rutile has one of the highest refractive indices at vis ...

mineral group. It has

tetragonal In crystallography, the tetragonal crystal system is one of the 7 crystal systems. Tetragonal crystal lattices result from stretching a cubic lattice along one of its lattice vectors, so that the Cube (geometry), cube becomes a rectangular Pri ...

symmetry,

space group In mathematics, physics and chemistry, a space group is the symmetry group of a repeating pattern in space, usually in three dimensions. The elements of a space group (its symmetry operations) are the rigid transformations of the pattern that ...

P4₂/mnm (No. 136),

Pearson symbol The Pearson symbol, or Pearson notation, is used in crystallography as a means of describing a crystal structure. It was originated by William Burton Pearson and is used extensively in Pearson's handbook of crystallographic data for intermetallic p ...

tP6, lattice constants ''a'' = 0.491 nm, ''c'' = 0.3385 nm, ''Z'' = 2 (two formula units per unit cell). Lead dioxide is used in lead acid batteries and electrochemistry, but only in synthetic form – both plattnerite and scrutinyite are too rare and find no practical application.

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

Spectroscopic data on plattnerite
Oxide minerals Tetragonal minerals Minerals in space group 136