{"id":595,"date":"2021-10-22T10:36:48","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T10:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kabeeragate.com\/blog\/?p=595"},"modified":"2021-10-22T11:05:20","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T11:05:20","slug":"varieties-of-alexandrite-physical-and-chemical-properties-of-alexandrite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kabeeragate.com\/blog\/varieties-of-alexandrite-physical-and-chemical-properties-of-alexandrite\/","title":{"rendered":"Varieties of alexandrite | Physical and chemical properties of alexandrite"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Chemical formula &#8211; Al2BeO4, impurity &#8211; Cr.<\/li><li>Color &#8211; bluish green, sometimes olive, yellow,\nrarely colorless.<\/li><li>The system is rhombic.<\/li><li>Hardness &#8211; 8.5 on the Mohs scale.<\/li><li>Density &#8211; 3.5-3.8 g per cm3.<\/li><li>The fracture is conchial.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Varieties of alexandrite<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Translucent alexandrites are characterized by the effect of\nopalescence &#8211; &#8220;cat&#8217;s eye&#8221;. Such crystals are called cymophanes. Green\nand red highlights on the edges of the stone are reflected in one direction\nwhen light enters, which leads to the appearance of a bright strip on its\nsurface. The ability to change color distinguishes alexandrite from other\nstones and makes it unique in the jewelry market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They say about alexandrite: &#8220;In the morning he is an emerald, in the evening he is a ruby.&#8221; In the old days, it was called a stone, for which &#8220;the morning is green, and the evening is red,&#8221; because in the light of the sun it plays with all shades of green, and under an electric lamp its color turns red.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Alexandrite deposits<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>All the deposits being developed today are placer deposits.\nThe main suppliers of alexandrite to the world market are Sri Lanka, Brazil,\nZimbabwe, Kenya. In addition, deposits are known in Burma, Madagascar and\nTasmania, in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Real alexandrite comes from the Urals!<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>The world&#8217;s only primary alexandrite deposit is located in\nthe Urals. Unfortunately, over the course of several decades, it was fully\ndeveloped. Ural alexandrites were considered the best and at one time were the\nstandards of quality. Only Ural alexandrite in daylight has a color very\nsimilar to the color of emerald. But at the same time, the Ural stones are\ninferior in size, purity and transparency to stones from the placers of Brazil\nand Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If the Ural alexandrite without inclusions is very rare,\nthen for alexandrite from Brazil, Sri Lanka, Africa it is rather the norm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Processing and use of alexandrite<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>The most common forms of alexandrite cut are stepped and\ndrop-shaped. Cymophanes are usually cabochonized in order to fully convey the\nplay of light inside the stone. In jewelry, alexandrite is often combined with\nemeralds, diamonds and pearls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alexandrite: impudent fakes, high-quality imitations and\nfamiliar synthetics<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The main signs<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p>The only stone that can be confused externally with\nalexandrite is green andalusite. However, such a substitution does not make\nsense, because andalusite is not found more often in nature. Artificial\ncorundum and spinel are used as alexandrite imitators. If a natural gem\nshimmers with green-red colors, then synthetic analogs change color from\nblue-gray to pink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, the reverse effect of natural alexandrite is\nmuch less pronounced. However, it is quite difficult for a layman to\ndistinguish a fake. Professional appraisers use special devices &#8211; a\nrefractometer and a spectroscope to determine the origin of a mineral. The\nrefractive index of natural alexandrite is 1.74, and at the red end of the\ncolor spectrum, the stone exhibits dark absorption lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Imitation and synthetics<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p>Alexandrite is a rare guest in the jewelry market, and it is\nnot so easy to buy jewelry with it, even if you are not a poor person. It is\nmuch easier to buy synthesized alexandrite &#8211; these are corundum or spinel grown\nin laboratory conditions, which, just like natural stone, change color under\nnatural and artificial light, and outwardly do not differ from it in any way.\nSuch alexandrites are quite affordable for middle-income buyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Particularly widespread inserts of color-changing synthetic\ncorundum were used in the USSR. At the same time, buyers, as a rule, believed\nthat they were buying a piece of jewelry with real alexandrite. Only\nspecialists can distinguish a natural stone from synthetic corundum or spinel\nusing a refractometer. The production of synthetic alexandrite began in 1973.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The world&#8217;s best synthetic alexandrite is industrially\nproduced in Russia, in Novosibirsk. These stones are much purer than natural\nones and have a red-violet color, close to amethyst, in artificial light and\nblue-violet in daylight. They are hundreds of times cheaper than natural\nalexandrites. The synthesis volume is only a few kilograms per year. By the\nway, synthetic alexandrites from Russia are actively sold on the US market\nunder the guise of natural stones from Brazil, Sri Lanka and Africa. Many\ndealers are not even aware of the fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kabeeragate.com\/productlisting\">Metaphysical\nProducts<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kabeeragate.com\/category\/healing-crystals\">Wholesale Healing\nCrystals<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chemical formula &#8211; Al2BeO4, impurity &#8211; Cr. Color &#8211; bluish green, sometimes olive, yellow, rarely colorless. The system is rhombic. Hardness &#8211; 8.5 on the Mohs scale. Density &#8211; 3.5-3.8 g per cm3. The fracture is conchial. Varieties of alexandrite Translucent alexandrites are characterized by the effect of opalescence &#8211; &#8220;cat&#8217;s eye&#8221;. Such crystals are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[388,389],"class_list":["post-595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agate","tag-alexandrite","tag-properties-of-alexandrite"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kabeeragate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kabeeragate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kabeeragate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kabeeragate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kabeeragate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.kabeeragate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":596,"href":"http:\/\/www.kabeeragate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595\/revisions\/596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kabeeragate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kabeeragate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kabeeragate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kabeeragate.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}