Gemmological and Mineralogical Characteristics of Quartz Jade from Dabie Mountain

Quartz jade from Dabie Mountain is a newly discovered kind of quartz jade with brilliant colour, delicate and moist texture, which could be named by “Dabieshan jade”. By using the polarizing microscope, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray powder diffraction,chemical analysis, infrared spectrometer and other methods,the mineral component,chemicalcomposition,physical optical properties, microstructure, infrared absorption spectra characteristics of “Dabieshan jade” are mainly studied, The results show that “Dabieshan jade”is a kind of quartz jade,with typical fine particles, and minor amounts of sericite, chlorite, fluorite, pyrite and other minerals such as clay minerals. The chemical composition of “Dabies-han jade” is relatively pure, including the main component of SiO₂,and a small amount of Al₂O₃, CaO, MgO, Fe₂O₃, FeO, K₂. Infrared reflectance spectra of “Dabieshan jade” with 1 177,1 104 cm^-1 spectra bands are caused by Si-O antisymmetric stretching vibration,800,781 cm^-1 bands caused by Si-O-Si symmetric stretching vibration,and a relatively strong band of 492 cm^-1 and a weak band of 542 cm^-1 caused by Si-O bending vibration.