Formula: MoS₂

Species:

Colour: Black, lead gray, or gray

Lustre: Metallic

Hardness: 1 – 1½

Specific Gravity: 4.62 – 4.73

Crystal System: Hexagonal

Member of: Molybdenite Group

Name: Variations of the name molybdaena and molybdenite were used for lead ores by Dioscorides (50-70 CE), Pliny the Elder (79 CE), and Agricola (1556), but the modern use of molybdenite did not begin until Johan Gottschalk Wallerius wrote about molybdenite in 1747. There was still a multiplicity of minerals receiving the same name, but modern molybdenite and graphite were the most common minerals given this name. The element molybdenum was discovered by Carl Wilhelm Scheele in 1778 and he provided molybdenite to Peter Jacob Hjelm who was able to isolate molybdenum in 1781. Scheele showed that molybdenite, in the modern sense, was soluble in acid, while graphite was not. From the Greek μόλυβδοζ meaning “lead”, but a name having a new usage unlike that of former times.

Molybdenite is the most important ore of the metal molybdenum. Molybdenite is currently being researched as a possible replacement semiconductor for silicon in transistors in electronic chips.