Magnetite is a rock mineral and one of the main iron ores. With the chemical formula Fe3O4, it is one of the oxides of iron. Magnetite is ferrimagnetic; it is attracted to a magnet and can be magnetized to become a permanent magnet itself. It is the most magnetic of all the naturally-occurring minerals on Earth. Naturally-magnetized pieces of magnetite, called lodestone, will attract small pieces of iron, which is how ancient peoples first discovered the property of magnetism. Today it is mined as iron ore.

Small grains of magnetite occur in almost all igneous and metamorphic rocks. Magnetite is black or brownish-black with a metallic luster, has a Mohs hardness of 5–6 and leaves a black streak.

The chemical IUPAC name is iron(II,III) oxide and the common chemical name is ferrous-ferric oxide.

Properties

In addition to igneous rocks, magnetite also occurs in sedimentary rocks, including banded iron formations and in lake and marine sediments as both detrital grains and as magnetofossils. Magnetite nanoparticles are also thought to form in soils, where they probably oxidize rapidly to maghemite.

Crystal structure

The chemical composition of magnetite is Fe2+Fe23+O42−. The main details of its structure were established in 1915 one of the first obtained using X-ray diffraction. The structure is inverse spinel, with O2− ions forming a face centered cubic lattice and iron cations occupying interstitial sites. Half of the Fe3+ cations occupy tetrahedral sites while the other half, along with Fe2+ cations, occupy octahedral sites. The unit cell consists of 32 O2− ions and unit cell length is a = 0.839 nm.

Magnetite contains both ferrous and ferric iron, requiring environments containing intermediate levels of oxygen availability to form.

Magnetite differs from most other iron oxides in that it contains both divalent and trivalent iron.

As a member of the spinel group, magnetite can form solid solutions with similarly structured minerals, including ulvospinel (Fe2TiO4), hercynite (FeAl2O4) and chromite (FeCr2O4). Titanomagnetite, also known as titaniferous magnetite, is a solid solution between magnetite and ulvospinel that crystallizes in many mafic igneous rocks. Titanomagnetite may undergo oxyexsolution during cooling, resulting in ingrowths of magnetite and ilmenite.

Crystal morphology and size

Natural and synthetic magnetite occurs most commonly as octahedral crystals bounded by {111} planes and as rhombic-dodecahedra. Twinning occurs on the {111} plane.

Hydrothermal synthesis usually produce single octahedral crystals which can be as large as 10mm across. In the presence of mineralizers such as 0.1M HI or 2M NH4Cl and at 0.207 MPa at 416-800 °C, magnetite grew as crytals whose shapes were a combination of rhombic-dodechahedra forms. The crystals were more rounded than usual. The appearance of higher forms was considered as a result from a decrease in the surface energies caused by the lower surface to volume ratio in the rounded crystals.

SOURCE