Mellite

• Also known as honeystone due to its often honey-yellow color
• Mellite is the aluminium salt of mellitic acid, i.e. benzene hexacarboxylic acid
• Formula: Al₂C₆(COO)₆ · 16 H₂O
• Space group: I4₁/acd (No. 142)
• Crystal system: tetragonal
• Crystal class: 4/mmm
• Lattice parameters: a = b = 15.553 Å, c = 23.110 Å, α = β = γ = 90°

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Picture: Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0

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Crystal structure (click on the picture to download the VESTA file):

(K. Momma and F. Izumi, “VESTA 3 for three-dimensional visualization of crystal, volumetric and morphology data,” J. Appl. Crystallogr., 44, 1272-1276 (2011).)

 

 

• AlO₆ octahedra (blue)
• Oxygen (red)
• Carbon (black)
• Hydrogen (white)

For a 3D interactive version on sketchfab, see here:

https://skfb.ly/6rSSR

 

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