The amblygonite (LiAlPO4F)-montebrasite (LiAlPO4OH) solid solution: A combined powder and single-crystal neutron diffraction and solid-state6Li MAS, CP MAS, and REDOR NMR study

The amblygonite-montebrasite series of minerals, common constituents of granitic pegmatites and topaz-bearing granites, show complete solid solution with ideal composition LiAlPO{sub 4}(F, OH). These compounds are ideal for studying F {leftrightarrow} OH solid solution in minerals because natural members of the series generally show little deviation from the ideal composition. In this study, we used powder and single-crystal neutron diffraction and solid-state {sup 6}Li MAS, CP MAS, and REDOR NMR techniques to study the effect of F {leftrightarrow} OH substitution on the series. Lattice parameters refined from single-crystal neutron diffraction data show increasing b and decreasing a, c, and V with increasing F/(F + OH). The volume is highest for the OH end-member because of the presence of an additional atom (H). The a and c parameters decrease with increasing F/(F + OH) because the O-H vector is close to the a-c plane and the Al-OH/F vectors are approximately parallel to c. Lattice parameters refined from neutron powder diffraction patterns collected at lower T show that thermal contraction increases with F/(F + OH), presumably because the F anion takes up less space than the OH molecule. The results show that the OH/F position is always fully occupied. The H displacementmore » ellipsoid shows little change with occupancy, which obviously corresponds negatively with increasing F/(F + OH). However, the Li displacement ellipsoid becomes extremely large and anisotropic with increasing F fraction. Most of the distortion is associated with the U{sub 3} eigenvalue, which lies between the c and c* directions. U{sub eq} values corresponding to the Li atom show a greater reduction with decreasing temperature than the other atoms. The temperature dependence of Li is the same regardless of F content. Even when extrapolated to absolute zero the Li displacement ellipsoid is very large, which implies a large static disorder.« less