stannitelike

Stannitelike is an adjective used in mineralogy and inorganic chemistry to describe a material, structure, or coordination environment that resembles tin-containing compounds, particularly the stannite-type structures such as Cu2FeSnS4, or tin-centered coordination patterns typical of tin(II) and tin(IV) chemistry.

In minerals, stannitelike indicates a lattice where tin occupies specific sites in a manner analogous to stannite, often with ordered cation distributions (for example Cu, Fe, Zn, Sn) and tetrahedral or distorted tetrahedral coordination. The term is used to signal structural similarity rather than identical composition.

In solid-state chemistry and materials science, stannitelike describes tin-bearing frameworks or derivatives that mimic the structural motifs of stannite or closely related families, such as kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4, with similar cation ordering and chalcogen coordination. Such usage helps group materials that share common tin-centered architectures.

Notes and limitations: stannitelike is an informal, descriptive term rather than a formal classificatory category. Its definition and boundaries can vary with context, and it is usually used to discuss structural or compositional analogies rather than precise chemical identity.

See also: stannite, kesterite, stannates, tin chemistry.