Mohs scale of mineral hardness

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
The Mohs scale of mineral hardness characterizes the scratch resistance of various minerals
through the ability of a harder material to scratch a softer material. It was created in 1812 by the
German geologist and mineralogist Friedrich Mohs and is one of several definitions of hardness
in materials science.[1] The method of comparing hardness by seeing which minerals can scratch
others, however, is of great antiquity, having first been mentioned by Theophrastus in his treatise
On Stones, circa 300 BC, followed by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia, circa 77 AD.[2][3]
[4]

Contents
• 1 Minerals
• 2 Intermediate hardness
• 3 Hardness (Vickers)
• 4 See also
• 5 References

[edit] Minerals
The Mohs scale of mineral hardness is based on the ability of one natural sample of matter to
scratch another. The samples of matter used by Mohs are all minerals. Minerals are pure
substances found in nature. Rocks are made up of one or more minerals.[5] As the hardest known
naturally occurring substance when the scale was designed, diamonds are at the top of the scale.
The hardness of a material is measured against the scale by finding the hardest material that the
given material can scratch, and/or the softest material that can scratch the given material. For
example, if some material is scratched by apatite but not by fluorite, its hardness on the Mohs
scale would fall between 4 and 5.[6]
The Mohs scale is a purely ordinal scale. For example, corundum (9) is twice as hard as topaz
(8), but diamond (10) is almost four times as hard as corundum. The table below shows
comparison with absolute hardness measured by a sclerometer, with pictorial examples.[7][8]
Mohs hardness Mineral Chemical formula Absolute hardness Image

1 Talc Mg3Si4O10(OH)2 1
 2 Gypsum CaSO4·2H2O 3

3 Calcite CaCO3 9

4 Fluorite CaF2 21

5 Apatite Ca5(PO4)3(OH–,Cl–,F–) 48

6 Orthoclase Feldspar KAlSi3O8 72

7 Quartz SiO2 100
8 Topaz Al2SiO4(OH–,F–)2 200

9 Corundum Al2O3 400

10 Diamond C 1600
On the Mohs scale, graphite (a principal constituent of pencil "lead") has a hardness of 1.5; a
fingernail, 2.2–2.5; a copper penny, 3.2–3.5; a pocketknife 5.1; a knife blade, 5.5; window glass
plate, 5.5; and a steel file, 6.5.[9] A streak plate (unglazed porcelain) has a hardness of 7.0. Using
these ordinary materials of known hardness can be a simple way to approximate the position of a
mineral on the scale.[1]
[edit] Intermediate hardness
The table below incorporates additional substances that may fall between levels:
Hardness Substance or mineral
0.2–0.3 caesium, rubidium
0.5–0.6 lithium, sodium, potassium
1 talc
1.5 gallium, strontium, indium, tin, barium, thallium, lead, graphite
2 hexagonal boron nitride,[10] calcium, selenium, cadmium, sulfur, tellurium, bismuth
 2.5 to 3
magnesium, gold, silver, aluminium, zinc, lanthanum, cerium, Jet_(lignite) (lignite)
3 calcite, copper, arsenic, antimony, thorium, dentin
4 fluorite, iron, nickel
4 to 4.5
platinum, steel
5 apatite, cobalt, zirconium, palladium, tooth enamel, obsidian (volcanic glass)
5.5 beryllium, molybdenum, hafnium
6 orthoclase, titanium, manganese, germanium, niobium, rhodium, uranium
6 to 7glass, fused quartz, iron pyrite, silicon, ruthenium, iridium, tantalum, opal
7 quartz, vanadium, osmium, rhenium
7.5 to 8
hardened steel, tungsten, emerald, spinel
8 topaz, cubic zirconia
8.5 chrysoberyl, chromium
corundum, silicon carbide (carborundum), tungsten carbide, titanium carbide,
9-9.5
stishovite
9.5–10 rhenium diboride, tantalum carbide, titanium diboride, boron [11][12][13]
10 diamond
>10 nanocrystalline diamond (hyperdiamond, ultrahard fullerite)

[edit] Hardness (Vickers)

Comparison between Hardness (Mohs) and Hardness (Vickers):[14]
Mineral Hardness (Vickers)
Hardness (Mohs)
name kg/mm2
Graphite 1-2 VHN10=7 - 11
Tin 1½ - 2 VHN10=7 - 9
Bismuth 2 - 2½ VHN100=16 - 18
Gold 2½ - 3 VHN10=30 - 34
Silver 2½ - 3 VHN100=61 - 65
Chalcocite 2½ - 3 VHN100=84 - 87
Copper 2½ - 3 VHN100=77 - 99
Galena 2½ VHN100=79 - 104
Sphalerite 3½ - 4 VHN100=208 - 224
Heazlewoodite 4 VHN100=230 - 254
Carrollite 4½ - 5½ VHN100=507 - 586
Goethite 5 - 5½ VHN100=667
Hematite 5-6 VHN100=1,000 - 1,100
Chromite 5½ VHN100=1,278 - 1,456
Anatase 5½ - 6 VHN100=616 - 698
Rutile 6 - 6½ VHN100=894 - 974
Pyrite 6 - 6½ VHN100=1,505 - 1,520
Bowieite 7 VHN100=858 - 1,288
Euclase 7½ VHN100=1,310
Chromium 9 VHN100=1,875 - 2,000

[edit] See also

 • Brinell scale • Knoop hardness test
• Hardness • Meyer hardness test
• Hardnesses of the elements (data page)

[edit] References
1. ^ a b Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 22 Feb. 2009 "Mohs hardness."
2. ^ Theophrastus on Stones
3. ^ Pliny the Elder.Naturalis Historia.Book 37.Chap. 15. ADamas: six varieties of it. Two remedies.
4. ^ Pliny the Elder.Naturalis Historia.Book 37.Chap. 76. The methods of testing precious stones.
5. ^ Learn science, Intermediate p. 42
6. ^ American Federation of Mineralogical Societies. "Mohs Scale of Mineral Hardness"
7. ^ Amethyst Galleries' Mineral Gallery What is important about hardness?
8. ^ Inland Lapidary Mineral Hardness and Hardness Scales
9. ^ William S. Cordua (1998). "The Hardness of Minerals and Rocks". Lapidary Digest.
http://www.gemcutters.org/LDA/hardness.htm. Retrieved 2007-08-19. Hosted at International Lapidary
Association
10. ^ l. i. berger "semiconductor materials" crc press, 1996 isbn 0849389127, p. 126
11. ^ Weintraub E. (1911). "On the properties and preparation of the element boron.". J. Ind. Eng. Chem. 3 (5):
299–301. doi:10.1021/ie50029a007.
12. ^ Solozhenko, V. L.; Kurakevych O. O.; Oganov A. R. (2008). "On the hardness of a new boron phase,
orthorhombic γ-b28". Journal of superhard materials 30 (6): 428–429. doi:10.3103/s1063457608060117.
13. ^ Zarechnaya, E. Yu.; Dubrovinsky, L.; Dubrovinskaia, N.; Filinchuk, Y.; Chernyshov, D.; Dmitriev, V.;
Miyajima, N.; El Goresy, A. et al. (2009). "Superhard semiconducting optically transparent high pressure
phase of boron". Phys. Rev. Lett. 102 (18): 185501. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.102.185501. PMID 19518885.
14. ^ "Mindat.org". http://www.mindat.org/min-1911.html.
• Mohs hardness of elements is taken from G.V. Samsonov (Ed.) in Handbook of the
physicochemical properties of the elements, IFI-Plenum, New York, USA, 1968.
• Cordua, William S. "The Hardness of Minerals and Rocks". Lapidary Digest, c. 1990.
v · d · eMineral identification

Cleavage · Crystal habit · Crystal system · Fracture · Lustre · Mohs scale · Specific gravity ·
Streak
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohs_scale_of_mineral_hardness"
Categories: Materials science | Mineralogy | Hardness tests
Personal tools
• Log in / create account
Namespaces
• Article
• Discussion
Variants
Views
• Read
• Edit
• View history
Actions
Search
Top of Form
Special:Search

Bottom of Form
Navigation
• Main page
• Contents
• Featured content
• Current events
• Random article
• Donate to Wikipedia
Interaction
• Help
• About Wikipedia
• Community portal
• Recent changes
• Contact Wikipedia
Toolbox
• What links here
• Related changes
• Upload file
• Special pages
• Permanent link
• Cite this page
Print/export
• Create a book
• Download as PDF
• Printable version
Languages
• Afrikaans
• ‫العربية‬
• বাংলা
• Bosanski
• Български
• Català
• Česky
• Dansk
• Deutsch
• Eesti
• Ελληνικά
• Español
• Esperanto
• Euskara
• ‫فارسی‬
• Français
• Galego
• 한국어
• Hrvatski
• Bahasa Indonesia
• Íslenska
• Italiano
• ‫עברית‬
• Basa Jawa
• ქართული
• Latviešu
• Lietuvių
• Magyar
• മലയാളം
• Монгол
• Nederlands
• 日本語
• Norsk (bokmål)
• Norsk (nynorsk)
• Plattdüütsch
• Polski
• Português
• Română
• Русский
• Саха тыла
• Simple English
• Slovenčina
• Slovenščina
• Српски / Srpski
• Srpskohrvatski / Српскохрватски
• Suomi
• Svenska
• தமிழ்
• ไทย
• Türkçe
• Українська
• Tiếng Việt
• 中文
• This page was last modified on 14 May 2011 at 12:32.
• Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;
additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit
organization.
• Contact us
• Privacy policy
• About Wikipedia
• Disclaimers

•
•