Phosphorescence minerals

Phosphorescent minerals re-emit light after they have been exposed to light. 

Phosphorus compounds occur widely in nature, with some of the most common forms being phosphate rocks and minerals, bones, and teeth. Phosphate minerals include calcium phosphate, Ca3(P04)2 apatite, Ca5(P04)30H fluoroapatite, Ca5(P04)3F and chloroapatite, Ca5(P04)3Cl. Elemental phosphorus was first obtained by H. Brand, and its name is derived from two Greek words meaning "light" and "I bear" because of the phosphorescence of white phosphorus due to slow oxidation. 

Spectroscopists interested in elucidation of the molecular energy schemes studied the phosphorescence emission of over 200 compounds, of which 90 were tabulated by Lewis and Kasha in 1944. They classified phosphorescing substances in two classes, based on the mechanism of phosphorescence production. The first group comprises minerals or crystals named phosphors, where the individual molecule is not phosphorescent as such, but emits a shining associated with the presence of some impurity localized in the crystal. This type of phosphorescence cannot be attributed to a concrete substance. The second type of phosphorescence emission is attributed to a specific molecular species, being a pure substance in crystalline form, adsorbed on a suitable surface or dissolved in a specific rigid medium [22],... 

The basis for the claim of discovery of an element has varied over the centuries. The method of discovery of the chemical elements in the late eightenth and the early nineteenth centuries used the properties of the new sustances, their separability, the colors of their compounds, the shapes of their crystals and their reactivity to determine the existence of new elements. In those early days, atomic weight values were not available, and there was no spectral analysis that would later be supplied by arc, spark, absorption, phosphorescent or x-ray spectra. Also in those days, there were many claims, e.g., the discovery of certain rare earth elements of the lanthanide series, which involved the discovery of a mineral ore, from which an element was later extracted. The honor of discovery has often been accorded not to the person who first isolated the element but to the person who discovered the original mineral itself, even when the ore was impure and that ore actually contained many elements. The reason for this is that in the case of these rare earth elements, the earth now refers to oxides of a metal not to the metal itself This fact was not realized at the time of their discovery, until the English chemist Humphry Davy showed that earths were compounds of oxygen and metals in 1808. 

Phosphorescence is not uncommon when certain fluorites are exposed to sunlight, ultraviolet rays, or arc heated. Vivid fluorescence is a common attribute of many fluorites, with blue to violet fluorescence predominant. The word fluorescence is derived from the mineral name, fluorite, owing to its strong fluorescent character. 

Calcium carbonate (CaC03) occurs naturally as calcite (density 2.7), a widely distributed mineral. Calcite is a common constituent of sedimentary rocks, as a vein mineral, and as deposits from hot springs and in caves as stalactites and stalagmites. Calcite is white or colorless through shades of gray, red, yellow, green, blue, violet, brown, or even black when charged with impurities streaked, white transparent to opaque. It may occasionally show phosphorescence or fluorescence. 

Zinc sulfide occurs naturally as the minerals zinc blende and, more rarely, wurtzite, these are structural prototypes (see Section 5.11). It is a light-sensitive white solid and, on exposure to cathode- or X-rays, it luminesces or fluoresces and is used in fluorescent paints and radar screens. Adding Cu to ZnO results in a green phosphorescence after exposure to light, and other colour variations are achieved by using different additives. The conversion of ZnS to ZnO by roasting in air is the commercial method of producing the oxide. 

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