The difference between tourmaline and crystal

The difference between tourmaline and crystal mainly observes their color. Generally speaking, purple in crystal is relatively rare. Purple in tourmaline is generally light, with pink purple and light purple. On the contrary, crystal does not have the same red and green as tourmaline (except hair crystals). Therefore, we can use the color difference between the two to roughly identify the true or false, let's take a look at the difference between tourmaline and crystal!

The composition is different

Tourmaline differs from crystal in chemical composition. Tourmaline is a silicate with a very complex composition, so there is no synthetic tourmaline. Crystal is a large quartz crystal mineral, which is mainly composed of silicon dioxide, so it is very easy to synthesize crystal. In addition, there are quite a number of crystal derivatives. When silicon dioxide is perfectly crystallized, it becomes agate after gelation and dehydration, and the hydrated colloid of silicon dioxide becomes opal after solidification. When the silicon dioxide grain is less than a few microns, it forms chalcedony, chert and secondary quartzite.

Electrical properties are different

Tourmaline is piezoelectric and pyroelectric when heated, and its surface releases electric charges that attract dust and confetti in the air, which was discovered by Linness, a famous Swedish scientist, in 1768. Therefore, its mineralogical name is "tourmaline", while crystals do not have this effect.

Different colors

The color of tourmaline is subdivided into as many as 15 complex colors, because tourmaline contains aluminum, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, potassium and other elements, which make tourmaline appear in a variety of colors. The main chemical composition of the crystal is silicon dioxide, which forms a colorless transparent crystal when it is pure, purple, yellow and brown when it contains trace elements such as Al and Fe, etc., and different types of color centers are formed by irradiating trace elements, resulting in different colors, such as purple, yellow, brown, pink and so on.

Different hardness

The hardness of tourmaline is higher than that of crystal. Tourmaline is characterized by non-cleavage and high hardness. The hardness is 7 to 8, the fracture surface is spherical triangle, and the density is 3.06 (+ 0.20 ~ 0.60) g / cm3. The hardness of the crystal is 7, and the fracture is shell-shaped, often in the shape of a hexagonal column and rhombohedron, with a density of 2.65 grams per cubic centimeter.

In addition, the magnetic field of tourmaline is tens to hundreds of times that of crystals of the same color. It is a medium-and high-grade gemstone in the jewelry world. High-quality tourmaline is even rarer than diamonds, and crystals are just ordinary gemstones.