Synthesis, crystal structure and crystal chemistry of ferri-clinoholmquistite, □Li2Mg3Fe3+2Si8O22(OH)2

This work reports the synthesis of ferri-clinoholmquistite, nominally □Li2(Mg3Fe3+2)Si8O22(OH)2, at varying f O 2 conditions. Amphibole compositions were characterized by X-ray (powder and single-crystal) diffraction, microchemical (EMPA) and spectroscopic (FTIR, Mossbauer and Raman) techniques. Under reducing conditions (≤ NNO+1, where NNO = Nickel–Nickel oxide buffer), the amphibole yield is very high (>90%), but its composition, and in particular the FeO/Fe2O3 ratio, departs significantly from the nominal one. Under oxidizing conditions (≤ NNO+1.5), the amphibole yield is much lower (<60%, with Li-pyroxene abundant), but its composition is close to the ideal stoichiometry. The exchange vector of relevance for the studied system is M2(Mg,Fe2+) M4(Mg,Fe2+) M2Fe3+–1 M4Li−1, which is still rather unexplored in natural systems. Amphibole crystals of suitable size for structure refinement were obtained only at 800 °C, 0.4 GPa and NNO conditions (sample 152), and have C2/m symmetry. The X-ray powder patterns for all other samples were indexed in the same symmetry; the amphibole closest to ideal composition has a = 9.428(1) A, b = 17.878(3) A, c = 5.282(1) A, β = 102.06(2)°, V = 870.8(3) A3. Mossbauer spectra show that Fe3+ is strongly ordered at M2 in all samples, whereas Fe2+ is disordered over the B and C sites. FTIR analysis shows that the amount of CFe2+ increases for increasingly reducing conditions. FTIR data also provide strong evidence for slight but significant amounts of Li at the A sites.