Powder XRD and TEM study on crystal structure and interstratification of Zn-chlorite (baileychlore)

Abstract

Baileychlore is Zn-end member trioctahedral chlorite, named by Audrey C. Rule and Frank Radke in 1988 for the honor of Professor Sturges W. Bailey of the University of Wisconsin – Madison, USA. Baileychlore occurs as dark green chlorite on calcite veins from garnet-vesuvianite skarn clasts at Red Dome ore deposit, Chillagoe, Queensland, Australia. The baileychlore has been studied by using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray energy-dispersive analytical electron microscopy analyses to determine crystal structure and interstratified layers. Baileychlore with stacking disorder displays streaking reflections of 0k0 (≠6n) hhl (h ≠ 3n). Unit-cell parameters for baileychlore (type I polytype) with a space group of C$ \bar 1$ are: a = 5.351(3), b = 9.266(5), c = 14.418(8) Å, α = 89.741(3)°, β = 96.741(4)°, and γ = 90.122(2)°. The strong lines of the measured XRD pattern [d(Å)(I)(hkl)] are: 14.331(7.151)(90.5)(002); 4.574(23.2)(1$ \bar 1$0, 11$ \bar 1$); 3.572(38.5)(004); 2.653(31.4)($ \bar 1$31, 200, 13$ \bar 1$); 2.406(49.4)(202, $ \bar 1$33, 13$ \bar 3$); 1.543(27.6)($ \bar 3$31, 060, 33$ \bar 1$), respectively. Reitveld refinement provides a composition (Zn2.49Al0.09Fe2+ 0.09□0.33)0.61− for the octahedral sheet and (Si3.53Al0.47)0.47− for the tetrahedral sheets within the 2:1 layer with (Al1.08Fe1.08Mg0.84)1.08+ for the interlayer sheet. The refinement results indicate that baileychlore is an intergrowth of type I and II polytypes. High-resolution TEM images show stacking disorder of baileychlore with small amount of isolated smectite layers.