Lanarkite

What is it?

Lanarkite is a mineral---a form of lead sulfate---with formula: Pb2(SO4)O. It was originally found at Leadhills in the Scottish county of Lanarkshire, after which it is named. It forms white or light green, acicular monoclinic prismatic crystals, usually microscopic in size. It is an oxidation product of Galena.

Photo

A lump of lanarkite

By Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com, CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, original file.

Why does everyone want some today?!

Lanarkite was used by Korean physicists in their new room-temperature superconductor called LK-99.

How do I get it?

You can't buy it (yet?). It's a rare mineral found near lead deposits.

But you can make it:

  1. The LK-99 paper has a simple recipe.

  2. This twitter thread gives another receipe that does not require PbSO4.

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