Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-p2v8j Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2024-06-02T06:03:10.024Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Hydrogen bonding in borcarite, an unusual borate-carbonate mineral

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

P. C. Burns
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 2N2
F. C. Hawthorne
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 2N2

Abstract

The crystal structure, including hydrogen positions, of borcarite, Ca4Mg[B4O6(OH)6](CO3)2, monoclinic, a = 17.840(4), b = 8.380(2), c = 4.445(1) Å, β = 102.04(3)°, V = 649.9(3) Å3, space group C2/m, has been refined by full-matrix least-squares methods to R = 2.5% and wR = 3.0% for 1020 unique observed [|F| ≥ 5σ(F)] reflections collected using Mo- X-radiation. The H positions were located on difference-Fourier maps and were refined using the ‘soft’ constraint that O-H distances are ∼ 0.96 Å. The 4:4T FBB (fundamental building block) of the borcarite structure contains four Bϕ4 tetrahedra (ϕ = unspecified ligand) which share corners to form a four-membered polyhedral ring. Borcarite is the only mineral known to contain this FBB. The FBBs do not polymerize, but each shares three anions with an Mgϕ6 octahedron on either side, forming rods of composition [MgB4O6(OH)6]4- along the c-axis. The rigidity of these rods is enhanced by hydrogen bonding, and individual rods are connected through Caϕ8 polyhedra, Cϕ3 triangles and hydrogen bonds.

Type
Mineralogy
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Present address: Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK

References

Burns, P. C. and Hawthorne, F. C. (1993a) Hydrogen bonding in colemanite: an X-ray and structure energy study. Can. Mineral, 31, 297–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, P. C. and Hawthorne, F. C. (1993b) Hydrogen bonding in meyerhofferite: an X-ray and structure energy study. Can. Mineral., 31, 305–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, P. C. and Hawthorne, F. C. (1994a) Structure and hydrogen bonding in preobrazhenskite, a complex heteropolyhedral borate. Can. Mineral., 32, 387–96.Google Scholar
Bums, P. C. and Hawthorne, F. C. (19946) Structure and hydrogen bonding in inderborite, a heteropolyhedral sheet structure. Can. Mineral., 32, 533–9.Google Scholar
Burns, P. C. and Hawthorne, F. C. (1994c) Kaliborite, an example of a crystallographically symmetrical hydrogen bond. Can. Mineral., 32, 885–94.Google Scholar
Burns, P. C. and Hawthorne, F. C. (1994rf) Hydrogen bonding in tunellite. Can. Mineral, 32, 895–902.Google Scholar
Brown, I. D. and Altermatt, D. (1985) Bond-valence parameters obtained from a systematic analysis of the inorganic crystal structure database. Acta Crystallogr., B41, 244–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christ, C. L. and Clark, J. R. (1977) A crystal-chemical classification of borate structures with emphasis on hydrated borates. Phys. Chem. Minerals, 2, 59–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cromer, D. T. and Liberman, D. (1970) Relativistic calculation of anomalous scattering factors for X-rays. J. Chem. Phys., 53, 1891–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cromer, D. T. and Mann, J. B. (1968) X-ray scattering factors computed from numerical Hartree Fock wave functions. Acta Crystallogr., A24, 321–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, W. L. and Ibers, J. A. (1968) Hydrogen Bonding in Solids. W. A. Benjamin, Inc., New York.Google Scholar
Pertzev, N. N., Ostravskaya, I. V. and Nikitina, I. B. (1965) The new mineral borcarite. Amer. Mineral., 50, 2097 (abstr.).Google Scholar
Yamnova, N. A., Simonov, M. A., Kazanskaya, E. V. and Belov, N. V. (1976) Refinement of the crystal structure of the Ca,Mg-carbonatoborate borcarite Ca4Mg/B4O6(OH)6/(CO3)2-Sov. Phys. DokL, 20, 799–801.Google Scholar