Thermal expansion of gehlenite, Ca2Al[AlSiO7], and the related aluminates LnCaAl[Al2O7] with Ln=Tb, Sm

The thermal expansion of gehlenite, Ca₂Al[AlSiO₇], (up to T=830 K), TbCaAl[Al₂O₇] (up to T=1,100 K) and SmCaAl[Al₂O₇] (up to T=1,024 K) has been determined. All compounds are of the melilite structure type with space group Thermal expansion data was obtained from in situ X-ray powder diffraction experiments in-house and at HASYLAB at the Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg (Germany). The thermal expansion coefficients for gehlenite were found to be: α₁=7.2(4)×10⁻⁶ K⁻¹+3.6(7)×10⁻⁹ΔT K⁻² and α₃=15.0(1)×10⁻⁶ K⁻¹. For TbCaAl[Al₂O₇] the respective values are: α₁=7.0(2)×10⁻⁶ K⁻¹+2.0(2)×10⁻⁹ΔT K⁻² and α₃=8.5(2)×10⁻⁶ K⁻¹+2.0(3)×10⁻⁹ΔT K⁻², and the thermal expansion coefficients for SmCaAl[Al₂O₇] are: α₁=6.9(2)× 10⁻⁶ K⁻¹+1.7(2)×10⁻⁹ΔT K⁻² and α₃=9.344(5)×10⁻⁶ K⁻¹. The expansion-mechanisms of the three compounds are explained in terms of structural trends obtained from Rietveld refinements of the crystal structures of the compounds against the powder diffraction patterns. No structural phase transitions have been observed. While gehlenite behaves like a ’proper’ layer structure, the aluminates show increased framework structure behaviour. This is most probably explained by stronger coulombic interactions between the tetrahedral conformation and the layer-bridging cations due to the coupled substitution (Ca²⁺+Si⁴⁺)-(Ln ³⁺+Al³⁺) in the melilite-type structure. Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material is available for this article at     

Thermal expansion and structural transformations of stuffed derivatives of quartz along the LiAlSiO4–SiO2 join: a variable-temperature powder synchrotron XRD study

 The structural behavior of stuffed derivatives of quartz within the Li_{1− x} Al_{1− x} Si_{1+ x} O₄ system (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) has been studied in the temperature range 20 to 873 K using high-resolution powder synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD). Rietveld analysis reveals three distinct regimes whose boundaries are defined by an Al/Si order-disorder transition at x=∼0.3 and a β–α displacive transformation at x=∼0.65. Compounds that are topologically identical to β-quartz (0 ≤ x < ∼0.65) expand within the (0 0 1) plane and contract along c with increasing temperature; however, this thermal anisotropy is significantly higher for structures within the regime 0 ≤ x < ∼0.3 than for those with compositions ∼0.3 ≤ x < ∼0.65. We attribute this disparity to a tetrahedral tilting mechanism that occurs only in the ordered structures (0 ≤ x < ∼0.3). The phases with ∼0.65 ≤ x ≤ 1 adopt the α-quartz structure at room temperature, and they display positive thermal expansion along both a and c from 20 K to their α–β transition temperatures. This behavior arises mainly from a rotation of rigid Si(Al)-tetrahedra about the <100> axes. Landau analysis provides quantitative evidence that the charge-coupled substitution of Li+Al for Si in quartz dampens the α–β transition. With increasing Li+Al content, the low-temperature modifications exhibit a marked decrease in spontaneous strain; this behavior reflects a weakening of the first-order character of the transition. In addition, we observe a linear decrease in the α–β critical temperature from 846 K to near 0 K as the Li+Al content increases from x=0 to x=∼0.5. Received: 26 June 2000 / Accepted: 1 December 2000     

Experimental determination of the reaction paragonite=jadeite+kyanite+H2O,and internally consistent thermodynamic data for part of the system Na2O−Al2O3−SiO2−H2O,with applications to eclogites and blueschists

Hydrothermal reversal experiments have been performed on the upper pressure stability of paragonite in the temperature range 550–740 ° C. The reaction $$\begin{gathered} {\text{NaAl}}_{\text{3}} {\text{Si}}_{\text{3}} {\text{O}}_{{\text{1 0}}} ({\text{OH)}}_{\text{2}} \hfill \\ {\text{ paragonite}} \hfill \\ {\text{ = NaAlSi}}_{\text{2}} {\text{O}}_{\text{6}} + {\text{Al}}_{\text{2}} {\text{SiO}}_{\text{5}} + {\text{H}}_{\text{2}} {\text{O}} \hfill \\ {\text{ jadeite kyanite vapour}} \hfill \\ \end{gathered}$$ has been bracketed at 550 ° C, 600 ° C, 650 ° C, and 700 ° C, at pressures 24–26 kb, 24–25.5 kb, 24–25 kb, and 23–24.5 kb respectively. The reaction has a shallow negative slope (? 10 bar °C^?1) and is of geobarometric significance to the stability of the eclogite assemblage, omphacite+kyanite. The experimental brackets are thermodynamically consistent with the lower pressure reversals of Chatterjee (1970, 1972), and a set of thermodynamic data is presented which satisfies all the reversal brackets for six reactions in the system Na₂O-Al₂O₃-SiO₂-H₂O. The Modified Redlich Kwong equation for H₂O (Holloway, 1977) predicts fugacities which are too high to satisfy the reversals of this study. The P-T stabilities of important eclogite and blueschist assemblages involving omphacite, kyanite, lawsonite, Jadeite, albite, chloritoid, and almandine with paragonite have been calculated using thermodynamic data derived from this study.     

The charge-density distribution, its multipole refinement and the antiferromagnetic structure of dioptase, Cu6[Si6O18]·6H2O

 The chemical bonding in the ring silicate mineral dioptase is investigated on the basis of accurate single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. A multipole model is used in the refinements. Static deformation electron density is mapped for the silicon tetrahedron, Cu-octahedron and water molecule in different sections. The silicon tetrahedron exhibits peaks resulting from σ-bonds between Si–sp³ hybrid orbitals and O–p orbitals. The excess density is located on bonds between the Si atom and bridge (in ring) O(1)-, O(1′)-oxygens and across the interior of the Si–O–Si angle. In the Jahn-Teller distorted Cu octahedron, in addition to peaks which result from single Cu–O σ-bonds, there are peaks which are due to 3d electrons. The analysis of crystal-field influence on the Cu charge distribution is made using the tetragonal D _{4 d} approximation for the low-symmetry (C1) Cu octahedron. The calculation of the occupancies of the 3d atomic orbitals shows that the Cu non-bonding orbitals are most populated (˜20%) and the bonding orbitals least populated (14%), as is typical for the Jahn-Teller octahedron. The effective atomic charge on the Cu atom in dioptase determined from the multipoles is +1.23e: closer to the Cu⁺¹ than to the Cu⁺² state. The charge on the Si atom has a value +1.17e, which is in the range typical for Si atoms already determined by this method. The accumulation of density on bridge oxygens and across the interior of the Si–O–Si angle may be explained by additional strain in the bond with the decrease of the Si–O–Si angle in dioptase to 132°. The same effect was found earlier in coesite. A single-crystal neutron diffraction study shows that dioptase becomes antiferromagnetic below a Néel temperature of 15.9(1) K, in contrast to the previously reported specific heat anomaly at 21 K. The magnetic propagation vector is (0, 0, 3/2) on the hexagonal triple cell or (1/2, 1/2, 1/2) in rhombohedral indices. The relation between the antiferromagnetic and the charge-density models for dioptase is discussed. The less occupied Cu d _x2−y2 orbitals are responsible for the magnetic properties. These lie in the Cu–O squares, which are approximately perpendicular to c _hex, but which are alternately inclined to it by a small angle. The magnetic moments of 0.59(1)μ _B on the Cu ions in the same level are ordered ferromagnetically, but between ions in alternate levels the coupling is antiferromagnet. Within experimental error the magnetic moments are perpendicular to the square planes, which make an angle ±13(3)° to the triad axis. Received: 8 June 2001 / Accepted: 10 January 2002