Confirmation of siderazot, Fe3N1.33, the only terrestrial nitride mineral

Abstract

Siderazot, the only terrestrial nitride mineral, was reported only once in 1876 to occur as coating on volcanic rocks in a fumarolic environment from Mt. Etna and, to date, has been neither confirmed nor structurally characterized. We have studied the holotype sample from the Natural History Museum, London, UK, originally collected by O. Silvestri in 1874, and present siderazot with epsilon-Fe3N-type crystal structure and composition of Fe3N1.33(7) according to crystal structure Rietveld refinements, in good agreement with electron microprobe analyses. Crystal structure data, chemical composition, and Raman and reflectance measurements are reported. Possible formation conditions are derived from composition and phase stability data according to synthetic samples.