POSSIBLE CONFUSION BETWEEN SO-CALLED FERRIHYDRITES AND HISINGERITES

The term ferrihydrite, originally defined as a poorly ordered hydrous ferric oxide exhibiting five or more distinctive X-ray diffraction maxima, has come to be extended to include species that exhibit only 4, 3 or 2 of these maxima. It is pointed out here that hisingerites may exhibit a similar 2-line diffraction pattern. The laboratory synthesis of hisingerites show that they can form under soil conditions. Acid oxalate buffer of pH 3, a reagent considered a fairly specific solvent for ferrihydrite, extracts the iron content of these synthetic hisingerites quantitatively.