Identifying the mineralogy on the surface of Mars helps to deduce the formation and evolution of sediments and the possible paleoenvironments involved (e.g., Bishop et al., 2018; Fraeman et al., 2013). At present, based on the visible and near-infrared (VNIR) spectroscopic data collected by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Observatoire pour la Minéralogie, l'Eau, les Glaces et l'Activité (OMEGA) onboard the Mars Express orbiter, the global mineralogy on Mars, including mainly the distribution of phyllosilicate (Poulet et al., 2005) and hydrated sulfates (Gendrin et al., 2005), has been recorded. Analyses of these data suggest that distinct aqueous geochemical environments existed on Mars, including warm surface waters (Bishop & Rampe, 2016), subsurface hydrothermal systems (Ehlmann et al., 2011) and hot springs (Al-Samir et al., 2017). For instance, the phyllosilicate outcrops on the surface of Mars mainly include Fe-Mg smectite (Ehlmann & Edwards, 2014); on the basis of the fact that smectite minerals typically occurs in surficial soils or sediments on Earth (Chamley, 1989), these outcrops might have formed in warm waters (25°C-50°C) on early Mars. Apart from the above mentioned well-crystallized minerals, data from both orbital spectroscopy and in situ rover investigations suggest the wide distribution of poorly crystallized and amorphous hydrated minerals on the surface of Mars, such as opal-A, allophane, and ferrihydrite (e.g., Rampe et al., 2012; Vaniman et al., 2014). Among them, allophane and allophane-like materials are considered to be common Abstract Allophane, a common component on Earth and a probable constituent of the amorphous component on Mars, is closely associated with Fe in the form of structural Fe and/or iron (oxyhydr)oxide coatings. However, until now, the formation and evolution of allophane as products of environmental Fe concentrations have rarely been studied. We investigated allophane precipitation from gels with different Fe/(Fe + Al) molar ratios (n, 0 ≤ n ≤ 1.0). X-ray diffraction patterns and Fourier transform infrared spectra of the products showed that allophane was nearly the only product at n ≤ 0.2 and that the crystallinity of Fe-rich allophane decreased with increasing n. Combined with the results of transmission electron microscopy and Mössbauer spectroscopy, Fe was found to be mainly incorporated into the gibbsite-like sheet of allophane, forming clusters; the highest Fe-for-Al substitution content was roughly estimated to be 20 mol.%. As n increased further, the formation of allophane was increasingly suppressed, and the Fe phases began to separate from the Al-Si phases, resulting in mixtures of incipient allophane and incipient akaganeite and finally akaganeite. The near-infrared spectroscopic data (1.2-2.6 μm) of the products showed incapability in identifying poorly ordered minerals in Al-Si-Fe systems, while the features in the range of 0.4-1.2 μm were powerful for studying iron occurrence in t...