Carrier

Solid fine to very fine-grained substances, e.g. clay minerals, with the following properties: 1. negligible dissolution within the active material, 2. able to bind the active substance by sorption, and 3. capable of releasing the active material under specific conditions. Smectite, talc, and other clay minerals are used as a drug carrier or a carrier for pesticides.

Caryopilite

A modulated layer silicate based on the serpentine structure, with an approximate ideal composition of Mn2+3Si2O5(OH)4. Fe, Mg, and Al can substitute for Mn. There is an apparent excess of Si and an apparent deficiency in octahedral composition on the basis of oxygen atoms. Earlier literature sometimes described caryopilite as bementite, but it has been shown that they are separate species. A monoclinic polytype is dominant and small amounts of a trigonal phase are often intergrown. Caryopilite, like greenalite, is an “island” structure where Si-rich tetrahedra of a given layer have apical oxygen atoms coordinate to one octahedral sheet and others to the adjacent sheet (Guggenheim and Eggleton, 1998). The islands are saucer- shaped with some islands inverted, and the islands are domed. Island diameters depend on composition with larger-diameter islands having smaller average octahedral cation sizes (4 tetrahedral-ring diameters in greenalite, 3 rings in caryopilite). Island domains are randomly displaced within layers. “Baumite”, a mixture of several phases, contains a phase, probably Zn,Mg-rich, that is intermediate in domain structure to greenalite and caryopilite. Caryopilite is commonly found in bedded manganese deposits, such as those at the North Chichibu belt in the Shikoku region, SW Japan.
Cf., greenalite

Caswellite

A poorly defined material, possibly mica and manganoan andradite.

Cat gold

An obsolete term for muscovite.

Cat silver

An obsolete term for muscovite.

Catalyst

A catalyst is a substance that influences the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed by the reaction. Catalysis is the process by which a catalyst influences a reaction, and this process often involves adsorption or the formation of intermediate compounds. When catalysis occurs, the overall Gibbs free energy of the reaction does not change.

Cataspilite

A poorly defined material, possibly alteration product with dominant muscovite.

Cathkinite

An obsolete term for a chocolate-brown saponite-rich material from Cathkin Hills, Scotland.

Cation exchange

A process whereby a cation bound to a site on a surface is replaced by a cation from a solution. In both phyllosilicates and zeolites, the cation may be located on either external surfaces or internal surfaces; thus, the full process may involve cations from the interior that diffuse toward the surface, and are in turn replaced by cations from the solution which diffuse inward. The term differs from solid-state diffusion primarily by time scale, where cation exchange occurs relatively quickly and solid-state diffusion requires a much longer period.

Cation-exchange capacity (or CEC)

The surface charge of a phyllosilicate that relates to a net negative imbalance of charges originating from the silicate layers of the mineral. The magnitude or capacity for exchange (see cation exchange) is related to the size of the net negative charge that occurs within the (commonly, 2:1) layer. Cation exchange occurs where a solution containing the exchangeable cations forms a concentration gradient with the exchangeable cation of the mineral. The charge on the mineral is operationally related to the magnitude of the number of exchanged cations. The net negative charge is considered “permanent charge”, and this originates from either (or both) tetrahedral or octahedral solid solutions, changes in oxidation state of constituent cations in the layer, substitutions involving anions [e.g., O2- for (OH)-], and other possible factors.