57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy, X-ray single-crystal diffractometry, and electronic structure calculations on natural sinhalites

Abstract

Natural alexandrite Al2BeO4:Cr from Malyshevo near Terem Tschanka, Sverdlovsk, Ural, Russia, has been characterized by 57Fe Mossbauer spectroscopy, electron microprobe, X-ray single-crystal diffractometry and by electronic structure calculations in order to determine oxidation state and location of iron. The sample contains 0.3 wt% of total iron oxide. The 57Fe Mossbauer spectrum can be resolved into three doublets. Two of them with hyperfine parameters typical for octahedrally coordinated high-spin Fe3+ and Fe2+, respectively, are assigned to iron substituting for Al in the octahedral M2-site. The third doublet is attributed to Fe3+ in hematite. Electronic structure calculations in the local spin density approximation are in reasonable agreement with experimental data provided that expansion and/or distortion of the coordination octahedra are presumed upon iron substitution. The calculated hyperfine parameters of Fe3+ are almost identical for the M1 and M2 positions, but the calculated ligand-field splitting is by far too large for high-spin Fe3+ on M1.