Mixed valence of iron in minerals with cation clusters

The valence and distribution of iron in vivianite, lazulite, babingtonite, rockbridgeite, acmite, aegirine-augite, hedenbergite, and ilvaite were studied with optical and Mössbauer spectroscopy. Optically activated intervalence charge transfer between Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ in neighboring sites through common edges or faces is observed in all these minerals irrespective of the polymerization of the iron-oxygen polyhedra ranging from finite clusters to infinite structural units. However, a distinct decrease occurs in the energy of the corresponding optical absorption band with increasing number of Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ ions involved in the charge transfer process. Thermally activated electron delocalization between Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ occurs only if Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ occupy crystallographically equivalent or geometrically very similar neighboring sites which share common edges to form extended structural units such as the ribbon in ilvaite. If the Fe-O polyhedra form finite clusters of two, three, or four polyhedra (e.g., in vivianite, lazulite, and babingtonite, respectively) no thermally-activated mixed-valence states of iron are observed. In aegirine, extended regions of the M1 chain are statistically occupied by Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ giving rise to thermally-activated electron delocalization in addition to the intervalence band in the optical absorption spectrum. The intensity of the optical intervalence absorption has been measured in a number of systems: ? values range from 60 to 210.