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'Phosphate minerals' are those minerals that contain the tetrahedrally coordinated phosphate (PO₄^3-) anion along with the freely substituting arsenate (AsO₄^3-) and vanadate (VO₄^3-). Chlorine (Cl^-), fluorine (F^-), and hydroxide (OH^-) anions also fit into the crystal structure.
The phosphate class of minerals is a large and diverse group, however, only a few species are relatively common.
Examples include:

★ triphylite Li(Fe,Mn)PO₄

★ monazite (Ce,La,Y,Th)PO₄

★ Apatite group Ca₅(PO₄)₃(F,Cl,OH)

★
★ hydroxylapatite Ca₅(PO₄)₃OH

★
★ fluorapatite Ca₅(PO₄)₃F

★
★ chlorapatite Ca₅(PO₄)₃Cl

★ pyromorphite Pb₅(PO₄)₃Cl

★ vanadinite Pb₅(VO₄)₃Cl

★ erythrite Co₃(AsO₄)₂'·'8H₂O

★ amblygonite LiAlPO₄F

★ lazulite (Mg,Fe)Al₂(PO₄)₂(OH)₂

★ wavellite Al₃(PO₄)₂(OH)₃'·'5H₂O

★ turquoise CuAl₆(PO₄)₄(OH)₈'·'5H₂O

★ autunite Ca(UO₂)₂(PO₄)₂'·'10-12H₂O

★ carnotite K₂(UO₂)₂(VO₄)₂'·'3H₂O

★ phosphophyllite Zn₂(Fe,Mn)(PO₄)₂•4H₂O

Contents

Applications

See also

References

Applications

Phosphate minerals are often used for control of rust and prevention of corrosion on ferrous materials, applied with electrochemical conversion coatings.

See also

★ Parkerizing

References

★ Hurlbut, Cornelius S.; Klein, Cornelis, 1985, ''Manual of Mineralogy'', 20th ed., John Wiley and Sons, New York ISBN 0-471-80580-7

★ Webmineral - Strunz

★ Webmineral - Dana