Flux Applications Sodium Aluminum Fluoride CAS 1344 75 8 2.95-3.05g/L Density

Sodium fluoroaluminate synthetic cryolite CAS 1344-75-8

for flux applications

• Color is clear or white to yellowish, but can also be black or purple.
   

• Luster is vitreous.
   

• Transparency crystals are transparent to translucent.
   

• Crystal System is monoclinic; 2/m
   

• Crystal Habits are usually massive and as pseudo-cubic crystals, some

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• with psuedo-octahedral truncations.
   

• Cleavage is absent, but three parting directions produce what looks like a

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• psuedo-cubic cleavage.
   

• Fracture is uneven.
   

• Hardness is 2.5 - 3
   

• Specific Gravity is 2.95 (average)
   

• Streak is white.
   

• Other Characteristics: index of refraction is 1.338 which is close to the

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• index of refraction of water. As a consequence, clear cryolite crystals or

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• powdered cryolite will nearly disappear in water. Also there is no salty

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• taste which is helpful in distinguishing cryolite from the mineral halite.
   

• Associated Minerals include siderite, quartz, topaz, fluorite, chalcopyrite,

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• galena, cassiterite,molybdenite, columbite and wolframite.

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• Notable Occurrences include Ivigtut area of Greenland and also at the

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• foot of Pikes Peak at Creede, Colorado, USA, Mont Saint-Hilaire and

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• Francon Quarry, Montreal, Quebec, Canada and at Miask, Russia.
   

• Best Field Indicators are lack of salty taste, density, index of refraction,

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• locality and crystal habit.

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Synthetic Cryolite(Na3AlF6) is a white crystalline powder manufactured from

hydrofluoric acid,sodium carbonate,and aluminium.Synthetic cryolite is used chiefly

as a flux in the electrolytic production of aluminum as it effectively lowers down the

melting point of the alumina.It is used in the glass and enamel industries,in bonded

abrasives as a filler,in making salts of sodium and alumium and porcelaneous glass

and in the manufacture of insecticides,Cryolite is a relatively safe fruit and

vegetable insecticide.the fluoride ion inhibits many enzymes that contain

iron,calcium and magnesium.