Characterization of natural silicate garnets by means of non-destructive testing methods

Irena Balčiūnaitė; Ilja Ignatjev; Donatas Kaminskas; Gediminas Niaura; Eugenijus Norkus

doi:10.6001/chemija.v32i3-4.4549

Irena Balčiūnaitė
Ilja Ignatjev
Donatas Kaminskas
Gediminas Niaura
Eugenijus Norkus

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6001/chemija.v32i3-4.4549

Keywords: pyralspite and ugrandite groups, natural silicate garnets, chemical composition, physical properties, visible light absorption spectra, Raman spectroscopy, cathodoluminiscence

Abstract

Two kinds of natural silicate garnets from the known origin countries were investigated: pyralspites – pyrope (Russia), almandine (India), rhodolite (India), spessartine (India), blue colour-change garnet (Sri Lanka), and ugrandites – andradite (Russia), demantoid (Russia), topazolite (Russia), rainbow garnet (Japan), grossular (Kenya-Tanzania), colourless grossular (India), light orange grossular (India), dark green tsavorite (Tanzania), medium green tsavorite (Kenya), light green tsavorite (Kenya), orange hessonite (Sri Lanka), pink hessonite (Sri Lanka), cinnamon hessonite (India) and uvarovite (Russia). The chemical composition of the garnets was performed with a scanning electron microscope. The physical properties such as specific gravity and refractive index were measured for the majority of garnets investigated. The spectroscopic methods – visible light absorption spectrophotometry, Raman spectroscopy and cathodoluminiscence microscopy – were applied for the characterization of the mentioned natural silicate garnets.