to 2016. Research In July 2020 scientists reported that they have observed a voltage-induced transformation of normally diamagnetic pyrite into a ferromagnetic material, which may lead to applications in devices such as solar cells or magnetic data storage. Researchers at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland have demonstrated that FeS2 can be exfoliated into few-layers just like other two-dimensional layered materials such as graphene by a simple liquid-phase exfoliation route. This is the first study to demonstrate the production of non-layered 2D-platelets from 3D bulk FeS2. Furthermore, they have used these 2D-platelets with 20% single walled carbon-nanotube as an anode material in lithium-ion batteries, reaching a capacity of 1000 mAh/g close to the theoretical capacity of FeS2. In 2021,a natural pyrite stone has been crushed and pre-treated followed by liquid-phase exfoliation into two-dimensional nanosheets, which has shown capacities of 1200 mAh/g as an anode in lithium-ion batteries. Formal oxidation states for pyrite, marcasite, molybdenite and arsenopyrite From the perspective of classical inorganic chemistry, which assigns formal oxidation states to each atom, pyrite and marcasite are probably best described as Fe2+[S2]2−. This formalism recognizes that the sulfur atoms in pyrite occur in pairs with clear S–S bonds. These persulfide [–S–S–] units can be viewed as derived from hydrogen disulfide, H2S2. Thus pyrite would be more descriptively called iron persulfide, not iron disulfide. In contrast, molybdenite, MoS2, features isolated sulfide S2− centers and the oxidation state of molybdenum is Mo4+. The mineral arsenopyrite has the formula FeAsS. Whereas pyrite has [S2]2– units, arsenopyrite has [AsS]3– units, formally derived from deprotonation of arsenothiol (H2AsSH). Analysis of classical oxidation states would recommend the description of arsenopyrite as Fe3+[AsS]3−. Crystallography Iron-pyrite FeS2 represents the prototype compound of the crystallographic pyrite structure. The structure is simple cubic and was among the first crystal structures solved by X-ray diffraction. It belongs to the crystallographic space group Pa and is denoted by the Strukturbericht notation C2. Under thermodynamic standard conditions the lattice constant of stoichiometric iron pyrite FeS2 amounts to . The unit cell is composed of a Fe face-centered cubic sublattice into which the ions are embedded. (Note though that the iron atoms in the faces are not equivalent by translation alone to the iron atoms at the corners.) The pyrite structure is also seen in other MX2 compounds of transition metals M and chalcogens X = O, S, Se and Te. Certain dipnictides with X standing for P,