PbCO3
Cerussite · lead carbonate
Cerussite is a stable, insulating lead carbonate mineral that serves as a major industrial source of lead.
About Cerussite
PbCO3 is a naturally occurring lead carbonate that exists as a thermodynamically stable phase. As a wide-band-gap insulator, it exhibits distinct electronic characteristics typical of stable mineral carbonates, making it a subject of extensive structural study with numerous documented configurations.
This compound serves as a critical geological source of lead. Its stability and prevalence in the Earth's crust have made it one of the most significant minerals for the extraction of lead metal, which is subsequently utilized across a wide variety of industrial and chemical manufacturing processes.
Key Properties
Cross-validated computational properties for Cerussite, aggregated across 3 databases.
Band GapEnergy needed to move an electron from the valence band to the conduction band. Lower or zero values tend to behave more metallic; larger gaps are more insulating or semiconducting.
Energy Above HullThermodynamic distance from the most stable set of competing phases. 0 eV/atom is on the convex hull; small positive values may still be experimentally accessible.
StabilityA plain-language summary of the best reported energy-above-hull result. It reflects whether the lowest-energy structure is on, near, or far from the stability hull.
StructuresCount of reported calculated crystal structures for this formula, including alternate polymorphs, source databases, and observed space groups.
Reported Structures
Lowest-energy structures reported for PbCO3, ranked by energy above hull.
| Space GroupSymmetry classification of the crystal arrangement. The number is the international space-group index. | Crystal SystemBroad lattice family, such as cubic, tetragonal, monoclinic, or triclinic, derived from unit-cell symmetry. | Band Gap (eV)Electronic gap calculated for this specific reported structure, measured in electronvolts. | E above hull (eV/atom)Thermodynamic distance from the convex hull for this structure, normalized per atom. Lower is generally more stable. | E/atom (eV)Computed total energy normalized per atom. Use energy above hull, not this value alone, when comparing stability. | Density (g/cm³)Mass per relaxed crystal volume, reported in grams per cubic centimeter. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pnma (No. 62) | orthorhombic | 3.33 | 0.0000 | -7.366 | 6.60 |
| P21/c (No. 14) | monoclinic | 3.36 | 0.0020 | -7.364 | 6.27 |
| Pnma (No. 62) | orthorhombic | 0.89 | 0.5698 | -6.805 | 5.26 |
| Pnma (No. 62) | Orthorhombic | — | — | — | 6.27 |
| Pnma (No. 62) | Orthorhombic | — | — | — | 6.59 |
| Pnma (No. 62) | Orthorhombic | — | — | — | 6.36 |
| Pm (No. 6) | Monoclinic | — | — | — | 10.45 |
| Amm2 (No. 38) | Orthorhombic | — | — | — | 8.71 |
| Pm (No. 6) | Monoclinic | — | — | — | 8.93 |
| Pm-3m (No. 221) | — | — | — | — | — |
| Pnma (No. 62) | — | — | — | — | — |
| Pnma (No. 62) | — | — | — | — | — |
Applications
Where Cerussite is used.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Cerussite, answered from cross-validated data.
What is PbCO3?
Cerussite is a stable, insulating lead carbonate mineral that serves as a major industrial source of lead.
What is PbCO3 used for?
What is the band gap of PbCO3?
Is PbCO3 a metal, semiconductor, or insulator?
Is PbCO3 thermodynamically stable?
What is the crystal structure of PbCO3?
What is the density of PbCO3?
How many polymorphs of PbCO3 are known?
What elements does PbCO3 contain?
Where does the data for PbCO3 come from?
How It Compares
As a naturally occurring mineral, PbCO3 represents a foundational example of stable lead-based carbonates, serving as the primary benchmark for understanding the structural and chemical behavior of lead within carbonate systems.
Data sources & attribution
- materials_project — Data from the Materials Project. Cite: Jain et al., APL Materials 1, 011002 (2013).
- mpaloe — Data from mpaloe.
- jarvis — Data from JARVIS (NIST). Cite: Choudhary et al., npj Comp. Mater. 6, 173 (2020).
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