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Site splitting at M3 in allanite-(Ce)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 January 2022

Can Shen
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Metallogenic Prediction of Nonferrous Metals and Geological Environment Monitoring, School of Geoscience and Info-Physics, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China
Zhengxiang Shu
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Metallogenic Prediction of Nonferrous Metals and Geological Environment Monitoring, School of Geoscience and Info-Physics, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China
Xiangping Gu
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Metallogenic Prediction of Nonferrous Metals and Geological Environment Monitoring, School of Geoscience and Info-Physics, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China
Jeffrey Dick
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Metallogenic Prediction of Nonferrous Metals and Geological Environment Monitoring, School of Geoscience and Info-Physics, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China
Yuzhou Feng
Affiliation:
Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China
Hui Zheng
Affiliation:
Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Anhuai Lu*
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Metallogenic Prediction of Nonferrous Metals and Geological Environment Monitoring, School of Geoscience and Info-Physics, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China The Key Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal Evolution, Beijing Key Laboratory of Mineral Environmental Function, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
*
*Author for correspondence: Anhuai Lu, Email: ahlu@pku.edu.cn
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Abstract

We report the crystal structure of allanite-(Ce), with composition (Ca1.0REE0.9□0.1)Σ2.0(Al1.46Fe3+0.52Fe2+0.76Mg0.12Ti0.15)Σ3.01Si3O12(OH) from the Xinfeng rare earth element (REE)-bearing granite in Guangdong Province, China. It has the unit cell a = 8.9550(4) Å, b = 5.77875(16) Å, c = 10.2053(4) Å, β = 114.929(5)° and Z = 2 in space group P21/m and is characterised by site splitting at M3 into M3a and M3b, at a distance of 0.38(3) Å, which are occupied partially by Fe0.764Mg0.12 and Ti0.15, respectively. The structure was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and refined with anisotropic full-matrix least-squares refinement on F2 to R1 = 2.82%, wR2 = 7.77% for 1856 independent reflections (8772 collected reflections). However, M3 splitting is not present in either ferriallanite-(Ce) or epidote, in which M3 is almost fully occupied either by Fe2+ or by Fe3+. Comparisons of bond lengths and volumes in cation polyhedra among allanite-(Ce), ferriallanite-(Ce) and epidote tend to indicate that the essential factor that facilitates site splitting of M3 in allanite-(Ce) is heterovalent substitution and occupation of a crystallographic site between Fe2+(Mg2+/Mn2+)–Al3+(Ti4+), a common phenomenon in minerals, such as the plagioclase series. Fine structure analysis of the M3 split model revealed that deformation of A2 is related closely to distorted M3, which is consistent with Fe2+ incorporation following REE substitution.

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Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland
Figure 0

Fig. 1. Single crystals of samples used for structure analysis. Allanite-(Ce) from (a) Xinfeng and (b) Gucheng, Guangdong province, China. (c) Ferriallanite-(Ce) from the Huayangchuan ore deposit in the Qinling Orogen, Central China. (d) Epidote from the Xinfeng granite, Guangdong province, China.

Figure 1

Table 1. Crystal data and final structure refinement for Xinfeng allanite-(Ce), ferriallanite-(Ce) and epidote.

Figure 2

Table 2. Chemical composition of allanite-(Ce), ferriallanite-(Ce) and epidote.

Figure 3

Table 3. Fractional atomic coordinates of Xinfeng allanite-(Ce) and atom occupancies compared to ferriallanite-(Ce) and epidote.

Figure 4

Table 4. Anisotropic and equivalent isotropic displacement parameters for Xinfeng allanite-(Ce) (in Å2).

Figure 5

Fig. 2. (a) Molecular structure of allanite-(Ce) showing the split sites; (b) refined polyhedral style structure of allanite-(Ce) projected down the b axis.

Figure 6

Table 5. Selected bond distance (Å), polyhedral volumes (V = Å3), distortion index (σ2) and bond angle variance* (ω = degree2) for A, M, Si sites for Xinfeng allanite-(Ce).

Figure 7

Table 6. Cation site occupancies and refined parameters of Xinfeng allanite-(Ce) with site split model compared with epidote, ferriallanite and other ‘allanites’.

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