Description
Prasiolite, also called green amethyst, is a highly sought-after gemstone due to its beautiful green color and powerful properties. It transforms negative energy into positive energy and helps restore lost balance. It stimulates creative thinking and the courage to pursue one's heart's desires. This beautiful crystal brings peace and warms the heart. Prasiolite also has a positive effect on the heart and can reduce cardiac arrhythmias.
Prasiolite, green quartz, or vermarine is a green form of quartz, a silicate mineral chemically silicon dioxide. Prasiolite is one of many varieties of quartz. Since 1950, almost all natural prasiolite has come from a small Brazilian mine, but it can also be found in Lower Silesia, Poland. Naturally occurring prasiolite is also found in Thunder Bay, Canada. Quartz is a form of silicon dioxide, SiO2, and is one of the most abundant minerals in the Earth's crust. It represents more than 12% of the Earth's crust by volume (including in granite and sand). Quartz has two modifications: α-quartz is trigonal, and β-quartz (a higher-temperature form) is hexagonal. Silicon dioxide also occurs in many other structures, such as α- and β-cristobalite, keatite, tridymite, coesite, stishovite, melangophlogite, and lechatelierite. Although quartz consists of silicon dioxide, it is often classified as a tectosilicate. This is because quartz forms a network of SiO4 tetrahedra, with each oxygen atom shared by two silicon atoms. Individual SiO2 molecules only occur in gaseous silicon dioxide. Quartz can be very pure, as with rock crystal, but often contains impurities. These impurities can consist of ions that are incorporated into the crystal lattice during crystal growth. Quartz crystals can contain between 13 and 15,000 ppm Al3+, between 9 and 1,400 ppm Na+, between 3 and 300 ppm K+, and traces of Fe3+, Ti4+, P5+, H+, and Li+. The aluminum and iron, in combination with ionizing radiation, are responsible for the color of some quartz varieties. Furthermore, quartz crystals can grow over other minerals, as is the case with rutile quartz. Quartz can form both large crystals and microscopic aggregates. The largest quartz crystals are found at Verloren Farm in Namibia. Quartz crystals up to 20 meters, and possibly 50 meters, and dolomite crystals up to 2 meters are found here. When quartz is melted, it often forms a glass upon rapid cooling because the crystallization process takes a considerable time. Quartz is a piezoelectric material, and the vibrations that can be induced in the crystal lattice are used in electronic devices such as quartz clocks and radios.
Silicon carbide (SiC), also known as carborundum, is an extremely hard material widely used for grinding and polishing, in the form of grinding wheels, polishing and grinding powders, and as a sandpaper coating, and nowadays also for armor plating on armored vehicles. The compound was discovered by Edward Goodrich Acheson, who obtained a patent for it on February 28, 1893. Granular silicon carbide is produced commercially through a very high-temperature reaction. High-quality silica sand and carbon (usually petroleum coke) are mixed in the correct proportions to the reaction material. A pile of material is built from this mixture. At the center of this pile of material is a graphite core that serves as an electrical conductor. The graphite core is connected to a transformer and energized. Due to the resistance, the temperature in the core of the pile of material (furnace) rises to approximately 2700 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the reaction SiO2 (sand) + 3C (coke) yields SiC + 2CO (carbon monoxide); in short: SiO2 + 3C → SiC + 2CO A clear distinction must be made between granular silicon carbide and fibrous silicon carbide, which is produced on a nanoscale for specific purposes. Granular silicon carbide has been shown to be toxically inert. Granular silicon carbide, as produced in the Netherlands, is not classified as a hazardous substance or preparation according to EC Directive 67/548/EEC or Directive 1999/45/EC or Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008. In a report published on December 7, 2012, the Dutch Health Council stated that silicon carbide in fiber form (fibers, "whiskers") can cause cancer and should be classified as "carcinogenic to humans" (category 1A), according to the Health Council's classification system. Data on the granular form of silicon carbide are insufficient to classify its carcinogenic properties (category 3). The reason is that the committee is concerned about whether commercial granular silicon carbide is sufficiently free of fiber-form silicon carbide
