New insight into the crystal structure of vermiculite : (Mg,Fe3+,Al)3(Si,Al)4O10(OH)2 x 4H2O
Vermiculite is a clay mineral, ideally (Mg,Fe3+,Al)3(Si,Al)4O10(OH)2.24H2O. It is a limited expansion clay with a medium shrink-swell capacity, and has a high cation exchange capacity, leading to a broad spectrum of commercial uses. Previous studies on the crystal structure of vermiculite did not provide: 1) a unique interpretation of the crystal chemistry of the interlayer region, 3) a reliable picture about the Mg-Al-Fe and Si-Al ordering at the octahedral and tetrahedral sites, respectively; 4) the location of the H sites. Hydroxyl orientation has a strong influence on the strength of the ionic intra-layer bonding in layered-materials, and can play an important role in the thermal behaviour of this clay mineral. We selected four large, and rare, single-crystals of natural vermiculite suitable for neutron diffraction. The quality of the crystals was already checked at room conditions by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. We require 10 days beam time on D9 (or D19) for two data collections at 298 and 20 K, respectively, in order to provide two neutron structure refinements of vermiculite with a clear picture of the H-bond configuration and of the octahedral/tetrahedral ordering
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GATTA Giacomo Diego and NENERT Gwilherm. (2013). New insight into the crystal structure of vermiculite : (Mg,Fe3+,Al)3(Si,Al)4O10(OH)2 x 4H2O. Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) doi:10.5291/ILL-DATA.5-11-396
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