Structural investigations on iron containing natural Zincblende using EBSD

A sample of natural zinc sulfide containing iron (from Portugal, Albergaria, Velha) was systematically investigated with respect to its microstructure using XRD (X-ray diffraction) and EBSD (electron back scatter diffraction). The habitus of the black sample suggests a hexagonal crystal structure, i.e. the occurrence of the Wurtzite phase. Nevertheless, using XRD and EBSD allowed only detecting and localizing the cubic Zincblende structure within the sample with the fibrous habitus while the expected hexagonal Wurtzite structure and possibly a hexagonal FeS structure were missed. The macroscopic fibrous structures consist of non-uniform and elongated grain structures which possess a preferred orientation with the <224>-direction parallel to the fiber direction. Inside the grains, twinning occurs (Σ3-Twinning) as well as grain fragmentation. Iron is not distributed homogeneously; instead areas with unique iron concentrations occurred. They were arranged like twins with iron concentrations from 4.1 up to 5.1 at% as detected and localized using energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Fe2+ is incorporated in lattice sites of Zn2+. Although the phase diagram FeS-Zn-S is not yet completely determined in all composition ranges of interest, coexisting phases (zincblende and FeS) should be expected at room temperatures. The results may contribute to further insights into the growth mechanisms of natural zinc sulfide, respectively to the discussion about. Furthermore, it was shown, that the crystal habitus not always allows concluding on the crystals symmetry with certainty.