Structure and modeling of disorder in miserite from the Murun (Russia) and Dara-i-Pioz (Tajikistan) massifs

Abstract

The structure, structural disorder and chemistry of miserite from the charoite-bearing rocks of the Murun massif (Russia) and from alkaline-syenite pegmatitic rocks of the Dara-i-Pioz massif (Tajikistan) were investigated employing a combination of electron microprobe, single crystal diffraction and micro-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis. Chemical analysis of the sample investigated by X-ray diffraction evidenced that Dara-i-Pioz miserite has a greater REE concentration than Murun miserite (~0.22 vs. 0.05 apfu, respectively) and also contains Y (0.14 apfu), which is absent in Murun miserite. The occurrence of a band at about 1,600 cm−1 testified to the presence of H2O in miserite at hand. Structural analyses yielded average cell parameters of a = 10.092, b = 16.016, c = 7.356 A, α = 96.60°, β = 111.27° and γ = 76.34°. Anisotropic structural refinement in space group P $$\bar{1}$$ converged at similar values for the analyzed samples (R ~3.4, R w ~3.8 %). An interesting feature shown by both the miserite specimen is the presence, revealed by difference Fourier analysis, of a disordered part of the structure. This turned out to be due to the flipping of the tetrahedra belonging to the isolated [Si2O7]6− diorthogroups, one of the two radicals (the other is [Si12O30]12−) characterizing the miserite structure. The sixfold and seven-vertex Ca polyhedra linked to the inverted diorthogroups show variation in coordination number with respect to those of the ordered structure.