High Quality Black Mica/Biotite

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Black mica, also known as Biotite, K(Mg, Fe)3Al Si3O10(OH, F)2, a common silicate mineral. It is brown to black with shiny surfaces, and like all micas, it splits into very thin flakes along its one perfect cleavage. Biotite is a mineral found in igneous rocks, such as granites, and metamorphic rocks such as schists and gneisses.

Biotite is a sheet silicate. Iron, magnesium, aluminium, silicon, oxygen, and hydrogen form sheets that are weakly bond together by potassium ions. It is sometimes called “iron mica” because it is more iron-rich than phlogopite. It is also sometimes called “black mica” as opposed to “white mica” (muscovite) – both form in some rocks, in some instances side-by-side.

Properties

Like other mica minerals, biotite has a highly perfect basal cleavage, and consists of flexible sheets, or lamellae, which easily flake off. It has a monoclinic crystal system, with tabular to prismatic crystals with an obvious pinacoid termination. It has four prism faces and two pinacoid faces to form a pseudohexagonal crystal. Although not easily seen because of the cleavage and sheets, fracture is uneven. It appears greenish to brown or black, and even yellow when weathered. It can be transparent to opaque, has a vitreous to pearly luster, and a grey-white streak. When biotite is found in large chunks, they are called “books” because it resembles a book with pages of many sheets.

Under cross polarized light biotite can generally be identified by the gnarled bird’s eye extinction.

Occurrence

Biotite is found in a wide variety of igneous and metamorphic rocks. For instance, biotite occurs in the lava of Mount Vesuvius and in the Monzoni intrusive complex of the western Dolomites. It is an essential phenocryst in some varieties of lamprophyre. Biotite is occasionally found in large cleavable crystals, especially in pegmatite veins, as in New England, Virginia and North Carolina. Other notable occurrences include Bancroft and Sudbury, Ontario. It is an essential constituent of many metamorphic schists, and it forms in suitable compositions over a wide range of pressure and temperature.

Applications

Biotite is used in electrical devices, usually as a dielectric in capacitors and thermionic valves. Biotite Mica’s flexible high aspect ratio plates can help to absorb ultra-violet light, provide a barrier to the permeation of both gas and liquid, maximise working temperatures, and increase rigidity and dimensional stability. These unique properties make it an ideal material to use in many types of applications in the field of plastics, paint and construction products.

Size:

-10 / +20mesh, -20 / +40 mesh, -40 / +60 mesh, -60 / +100 mesh

High Quality Black Mica/Biotite