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Tazieffite, ideally Pb20Cd2(As,Bi)22S50Cl10, is a new mineral from the high-temperature fumaroles of the Mutnovsky volcano, Kamchatka Peninsula, Russian Federation. It occurs as tiny, slender, needle-shaped crystals, up to 400 μm long and 10 μm across, generally forming fibrous aggregates. Tazieffite is closely associated with greenockite, galena, mutnovskite, kudriavite, and Cd-rich cannizzarite. Other minerals spatially associated are pyrite, anhydrite, and cristobalite. Tazieffite is silvery-gray in color, occasionally with a magenta tint when it forms aggregates of extremely fine needles. It has a black streak and metallic luster. In plane-polarized incident light, tazieffite is weakly bireflectant and weakly pleochroic from dark gray to a blue-gray. Between crossed polars, the mineral is weakly anisotropic, without characteristic rotation tints. Reflectance percentages measured in air (Rmin and Rmax) for a single grain are 33.9, 34.1 (471.1 nm), 32.8, 33.0 (548.3 nm), 32.4, 32.6 (586.6 nm), and 30.9, 31.1 (652.3 nm), respectively. Electron microprobe analyses yield the following ranges of concentrations: Pb 41.88-44.14 (avg. 42.90), Cd 0.87-1.16 (avg. 1.03), Sn 0.31-0.69 (avg. 0.48), Bi 20.43-22.94 (avg. 21.90), As 8.64-10.73 (avg. 9.66), S 16.10-17.48 (avg. 16.58), Se 0.82-1.28 (avg. 1.04), Cl 2.39-2.77 (avg. 2.63), Br 0.09-0.15 (avg. 0.12), I 0.27-0.58 (avg. 0.42). The empirical chemical formula, calculated on the basis of 44 cations, is Pb20.06(Cd0.89Sn0.39In0.02)Σ1.30(As12.49Bi10.15)Σ22.64 (S50.08Se1.28)Σ51.36(Cl7.18I0.32Br0.15)Σ7.65. Tazieffite is closely related to the halogen-sulfosalt vurroite, Pb20Sn2Bi22S54Cl6, both from a chemical and structural point of view. It represents the (Cd,As)-dominant of vurroite, according to the coupled heterovalent substitution Sn4+ + 2S2- → Cd2+ + 2Cl-. The crystal structure of tazieffite was refined in the space group C2/c to R = 0.0370 for 4271 reflections with I > 2σ(I). Unit-cell parameters are a = 8.3520(17), b = 45.5920(92), c = 27.2610(55) Å, β = 98.84(3)°, with V = 10257(4) Å3, and Z = 4. The structure of tazieffite consists of lozenge-shaped composite rods made of coordination polyhedra of Pb around an octahedrally coordinated (Cd,Sn,Pb) position, interconnected into layers parallel to (010). These layers are separated by ribbons of As and Bi in distorted octahedral coordination. The ribbons form wavy, discontinuous double layers of the PbS archetype. Lone electron pairs of As and Bi are accommodated in the central portions of the PbS-like layers. The possibility that small amounts of NH4+ are incorporated in the crystal structure of tazieffite is discussed. The name of this new mineral species (IMA 2008-012) honors Haroun Tazieff (Warszawa, May 11, 1914-Paris, February 6, 1998), famous Belgian/French volcanologist, who was a pioneer in the field study of volcanoes and devoted his life to the study of volcanic gases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cu-poor meneghinite from La Lauzie`re Massif (Savoy, France) has the composition (electron microprobe) (in wt%): Pb 59.50, Sb 20.33, Bi 1.19, Cu 0.87, Ag 0.05, Fe 0.03, S 17.62, Se 0.05, Total 99.64. Its crystal structure (X-ray on a single crystal) was solved with R1=0.0506, wR2=0.1026, with an orthorhombic symmetry, space group Pnma, and a=24.080(5) A˚, b=4.1276(8) A˚, c=11.369(2) A˚, V=1130.0(4) A˚3, Z=4. Relatively to the model of Euler and Hellner (1960), this structure shows a significantly lower site occupancy factor for the tetrahedral Cu site (0.146 against 0.25). Among the five other metallic sites, Bi appears in the one with predominant Sb. Developed structural formula: Cu0.15Pb2(Pb0.53Sb0.47)(Pb0.46Sb0.54)(Sb0.75Pb0.19Bi0.06)S6; the reduced one: Cu0.58Pb12.72(Sb7.04Bi0.24)S24. The formation of such a Cu-poor variety seems to be related to specific paragenetic conditions (absence of coexisting galena), or to crystallochemical constraints (minor Bi). To cite this article: Y. Moe¨lo et al., C. R. Geoscience 334 (2002) 529–536. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The new mineral species arsenmarcobaldiite, Pb12 (As3.2Sb2.8)Σ=6S21, occurs as black anhedral grains, up to 0.5 mm in size, with metallic lustre, associated with pyrite and minor sphalerite, within layers of granoblastic quartz and accessory baryte embedded in pyrite-rich schist from a small baryte + pyrite prospect at Verzalla, Stazzema, Apuan Alps, Tuscany, Italy. Under the ore microscope, arsenmarcobaldiite is white. It is weakly pleochroic in shades of grey. Anisotropy is distinct, both in air and oil, with rotation tints from brownish to bluish-grey. Reflectance percentages for the four COM wavelengths are [Rmin, Rmax (%) (λ)]: 32.8, 38.3 (470 nm); 32.2, 37.5 (546 nm); 31.7, 36.9 (589 nm); 31.4, 36.6 (650 nm). Polysynthetic twinning is common and characteristic. Electron microprobe analysis gave (in wt% -- average of 19 spot analyses): Ag 0.20(1), Pb 66.34(38), As 6.36(10), Sb 8.93(9), Bi 0.30(5), S 18.00(14), total 100.13(48). On the basis of ΣMe = 18 atoms per formula unit, the chemical formula is Ag0.07(1) Pb11.96(5) (As3.17(4) Sb2.74(3)Bi0.05(1) )Σ5.96S20.97(17) , ideally Pb12 (As3.2Sb2.8)Σ=6S21. The main diffraction lines, corresponding to multiple hkl indices, are [d in Å (relative visual intensity)]: 3.595 (m), 3.429 (m), 3.214 (ms), 3.027 (ms), 2.233 (s), 2.125 (ms), 1.839 (ms). The X-ray diffraction study gave a triclinic unit cell, space group P1, with a = 8.9736(9), b = 29.334(3), c = 8.4925(10) Å, α = 98.369(6), β = 118.705(6), γ = 90.874(6)°, V = 1930.5(4) ų, Z = 2. The crystal structure was solved and refined to R1 = 0.063 on the basis of 6325 reflections with Fo > 4σ(Fo) and 364 refined parameters. Arsenmarcobaldiite is a new N = 3.5 homologue belonging to the jordanite homologous series and it is the As-dominant isotype of marcobaldiite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability of I···I van der Waals interactions to direct the self-assembly of slabs of the radical cation of ethylenedithio-1,2-diiodo-tetrathiafulvalene, EDT-TTF-I[sub 2], and polymeric lead iodide covalent anionic layers is demonstrated by the synthesis of single crystals of β-(EDT-TFF-I[sub 2])[sub 2, sup •+][(Pb[sub 5/6...1/6]I[sub 2])[sup 1/3-]][sub 3], triclinic, P-1, a = 7.7818(8), b = 7.9760(8), c = 19.9668(2) Å, α = 82.409(12), β = 85.964(12), γ = 61.621(11)°, V = 1080.76(19) ų, R1, wR2 = 0.0459, 0.0947; and β-(EDT-TTF-I[sub 2])[sub 2, sup •+][(Pb[sub 2/3+x]Ag[sub 1/3-2x...x] I[sub 2])[sup 1/3]][sub 3], x ≈ 0.05, triclinic, P-1, a = 7.7744(8), b = 7.9193(8), c = 19.834(2) Å, α = 87.189(12), β = 83.534(12), γ = 61.602(11)°, V = 1067.4(2) ų, R1, wR2 = 0.0508, 0.0997. The state-of-the-art, combined microprobe and structural analysis of the metal site vacancies and occupancies patterns reveal a commensurate organic-inorganic interface and point out the importance of halogen···halogen van der Waals interactions to future studies aiming at directing interface topologies. The electronic structure, room-temperature metallic character and metal-insulator transition at ca. 70 K of the two-dimensional organic slabs are retained upon alloying of the inorganic sublattice with monocations. The room-temperature conductivity of the metallic lead-silver alloy is 2 orders of magnitude larger than that of β-(EDT-TTF-I[sub 2])[sub 2, sup •+][(Pb[sub 5/6...1/6]I[sub 2])[sup 1/3-]][sub 3]. This calls for the study of materials with diverse alloying patterns with metal cations of different nature and charge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structure of meneghinite (CuPb13Sb7S24), from the Bottino mine in the Apuan Alps (Italy), has been solved and refined as an incommensurate structure in four-dimensional superspace. The structure is orthorhombic, superspace group Pnma(0β0)00 s, cell parameters a = 24.0549 (3), b = 4.1291 (6), c = 11.3361 (16) Å, modulation vector q = 0.5433 (4) b*. The structure was refined from 6604 reflections to a final R = 0.0479. The model includes modulation of both atomic positions and displacement parameters, as well as occupational waves. The driving forces stabilizing the modulated structure of meneghinite are linked to the occupation modulation of Cu and some of the Pb atoms. As a consequence of the Cu/[] and Pb/Sb modulations, three- to sevenfold coordinations of the M cations (Pb/Sb) occur in different parts of the structure. The almost bimodal distribution of the occupation of Cu/[] and Pb/Sb at M5 conforms with the coupled substitution Sb3+ + [] → Pb2+ + Cu+, thus corroborating the hypothesis deduced previously for the incorporation of copper in the meneghinite structure. The very small departure (∼0.54 versus 0.50) from the commensurate value of the modulation raises the question of whether other sulfosalts considered superstructures have been properly described, and, in this light, if incommensurate modulation in sulfosalts could be much more common than thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]