Database of luminescent minerals 

BRANCHITE

DOUBTFUL FLUORESCENCE but sometimes cited in luminescence literature

Chemical formula: C₂₀H₃₄

Family: Organic

Status: IMA-A

Crystal system : Triclinic

Display mineral: NON

Associated names (luminescent varieties, discredited names, synonyms, etc.): HARTITE, 

Luminescence:

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Phosphorescence (in the common sense of the term) observable with the naked eye:

Comments:

Historical samples of branchite, described by the Tuscan naturalist Paolo Savi (1798–1871) at the end of the 1830s, were re-examined through single-crystal X-ray diffraction, showing their identity with hartite, C20H34, a hydrocarbon mineral described by Haidinger in 1841. As the name ‘branchite’ has priority over ‘hartite’, the reinstatement of the former name and the discreditation of the latter were approved by the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA–CNMNC). Branchite is one of only eleven minerals formed by C and H listed in the official IMA List of Minerals. The type locality of branchite is the Botro di Lavajano, Monte Vaso, Chianni, Pisa, Tuscany, Italy. (May 2022)

Natural cyclic hydrocarbon to be checked for luminescence (equivalent to α-phyllocladane)

The terpenoid minerals fichtelite (norabietane) and hartite (α-phyllocladane) seems to have a luminescence under UV LW. Some of these hydrocarbons occur in soil and peat environments of Holocene age. However, hartite occurs in lignite, in fossilised Glyptostrobus (Taxodiaceae) trees and in pelosiderites of the Bílina Miocene series (about 20 Ma); it represents the accumulated and crystallised product of diagenetic transformation of precursor biogenic terpenoids. Raman spectra of earth waxes investigated confirm their dominantly aliphatic character and oxidative degradation (related to weathering and/or subaerial alteration in museum cabinets).

Activator(s) and spectrum:

Activator(s): Matière organique intrinsèque,

No spectrum yet

Best localities for fluorescence (*):

• Bílina coal mine, Bílina (Bilin), Ústí Region, Bohemia, Czech Republic;

(*)The data are not exhaustive and are limited to a few remarkable localities for fluorescence

Bibliographic reference for luminescence:

Reference for luminescence on the Internet:

Mineralogical reference on the Internet:

  http://www.mindat.org/show.php?name=Branchite

  http://webmineral.com/data/Branchite.shtml

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