Stabilization of the garnet lattice by silicon incorporation in polycrystalline katoite†
Abstract
Polycrystalline single-phase bulk hydrogrossulars (Ca3Al2(SiO4)3−x(OH)4x (0 ≤ x ≤ 3)) of various compositions were synthesized for the first time utilizing hydrothermal treatment at 200 °C of the phyllosilicate strätlingite (Ca2Al2SiO2(OH)10·2.25H2O) in its mother liquor. The reproducibility of previously reported synthetic methods for both Si-free katoite and hydrogrossulars was evaluated. Analysis of the thermal behavior of hydrogrossulars based on TG-DTA and variable-temperature XRPD showed a significant increase in thermal stability upon silicon incorporation due to the reinforcement of the lattice with SiO4 tetrahedra. By tracking changes in the lattice parameters upon heating, we showed that the linear thermal expansion coefficients decrease with higher degrees of Si substitution (17.19 × 10−6 K−1 and 14.20 × 10−6 K−1 for Ca3Al2(OH)12 and Ca3Al2(SiO4)1.28(2)(OH)6.88(8), respectively). Temperature-induced partial dehydration of the SiO4-stabilized lattice results in the formation of tetrahedral Al sites as defects due to the removal of two oxygen atoms from the initial octahedral environment. Near-complete dehydration (450–850 °C) leads to the loss of the long-range structure, which later on crystallizes at 900 °C as a mixture of different minerals, e.g. calcio-olivine (γ-Ca2SiO4), gehlenite (Ca2Al2SiO7), krotite (CaAlO2), or mayenite (Ca12Al14O33).