Parageneses and Crystal Chemistry of Arsenic Minerals

Abstract

The labyrinthine world of arsenic minerals has piqued the curiosity of many researchers in mineralogy, geochemistry, chemistry, and environmental sciences. Arsenic was known to the ancient civilizations; there are written Greek, Roman, and Chinese reports about minerals and substances of this element (Emsley 2001). The discovery of elemental arsenic is attributed to Albertus Magnus (1193–1280) who prepared it by reduction of As2O3. The common public association of arsenic and poison is the heritage of a long history of eliminating unwanted and unloved ones with compounds of this element. Mary Ann Cotton (1832–1873) was charged with murder of her mother, three husbands, a lover, eight of her own children, and seven stepchildren, all of them with an arsenic-based de-worming compound (Emsley 2005). Kořinek (1675) gave a vivid and frightening account on how a natural ferric sulfo-arsenate (bukovskýite) was used to poison the German armies of Albrecht Habsburg who invaded Bohemia in 1304. An arsenic derivative called lewisite (2-chlorovinyl-dichloroarsine) was used in the World War I (Emsley 2001). On the other hand, brightly-colored arsenic compounds were used in all imaginable products well into the 20th century. Arsenic whetted the appetite of many children as green arsenical chemicals were used as cake decorations and coatings of sugar sweets (Emsley 2005). The death of Napoleon Bonaparte has been regarded for a long time as a consequence of ingested or inhaled arsenical compouds (e.g., Aldersey-Williams 2011), however there are alternative interpretations (Lugli et al. 2011). Accidental mass arsenic poisoning occurred in Manchester in 1900 when many men drank beer contaminated with arsenic. The arsenic was tracked back to pyrite which was used to produce sulfuric acid which was employed in the manufacture of glucose for this batch of beer (Emsley 2005). Despite its toxicity, arsenic finds a few uses in …