cryolite

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cryolite

cryolite or kryolite [Gr.,=frost stone], mineral usually pure white or colorless but sometimes tinted in shades of pink, brown, or even black and having a luster like that of wax. Chemically, it is a double fluoride of sodium and aluminum, Na ₃ AlF ₆ . Its principal use is as a flux in the smelting of aluminum. It is used also as a source of soda, aluminum salts, fluorides, and hydrofluoric acid (by the action of sulfuric acid). It was discovered in Greenland in 1794 and occurs almost nowhere else. Cryolite has been produced synthetically.

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cryolite

A Dictionary of Earth Sciences | 1999 | | Â© A Dictionary of Earth Sciences 1999, originally published by Oxford University Press 1999. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

cryolite Mineral, Na₃AlF₆; sp. gr. 3.0; hardness 2.5; monoclinic; colourless to white, sometimes brown to reddish; white streak; vitreous to greasy lustre; crystals rare, but cubic-like and hexahedral, also occurs massive; no cleavage, basal parting and poor prismatic parting; occurs in pegmatites that have been enriched with fluorine, and in association with siderite, quartz, galena, chalcopyrite, fluorite, and cassiterite. The powder becomes almost invisible in water due to its low refractive index. Synthetic cryolite is used as a flux in the production of aluminium and enamels.

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AILSA ALLABY and MICHAEL ALLABY. "cryolite." A Dictionary of Earth Sciences. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. 22 Dec. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

AILSA ALLABY and MICHAEL ALLABY. "cryolite." A Dictionary of Earth Sciences. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. (December 22, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O13-cryolite.html

AILSA ALLABY and MICHAEL ALLABY. "cryolite." A Dictionary of Earth Sciences. 1999. Retrieved December 22, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O13-cryolite.html

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

	Bright prospects for fluorides in aluminum sector.(Inorganics) Magazine article from: China Chemical Reporter; 7/26/2008
	Inorganic Fluoride chemicals production base to be built in Jiaozuo. (Project News). Magazine article from: China Chemical Reporter; 8/6/2002
	Inorganic fluoride chemicals industry in China.(Inorganics) Magazine article from: China Chemical Reporter; 5/6/2009

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