ALITE

Alite is an impure form of tricalcium silicate, Ca3SiO5, sometimes formulated as 3CaO·SiO2 (C3S in cement chemist notation), typically with 3-4% of substituent oxides. It is the major, and characteristic, phase in Portland cement. The name was given by Alfred Elis Törnebohm in 1897 to a crystal identified in microscopic investigation of Portland cement. Hatrurite is the name of a mineral that is substituted C3S.