Local Structure and Protons in Non-Stoichiometric Pseudo-Cubic Pollucite Mineral by Multinuclear NMR

oleh: Luis Sánchez-Muñoz, José-Ignacio Santos, William B. Simmons, Pierre Florian

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2022-09-01

Deskripsi

The pollucite structure is considered as a candidate ceramic crystalline matrix for the ceramic immobilization and long-term storage of <sup>135</sup>Cs and <sup>137</sup>Cs fission products, and thus, their structural characteristics have particular importance. However, its local structure has not been fully resolved from reciprocal-space techniques and infrared spectroscopy, and important discrepancies exist in the available literature. Two birefringent and non-stoichiometric pollucite specimens from <i>Tanco</i> pegmatite (Cs<sub>0.83</sub>Na<sub>0.20</sub>Al<sub>1.13</sub>Si<sub>2.56</sub>O<sub>6</sub>) and from <i>Mt. Mica</i> pegmatite (Cs<sub>0.94</sub>Na<sub>018</sub>Al<sub>1.23</sub>Si<sub>2.78</sub>O<sub>6</sub>), with powder X-ray diffraction patterns fully consistent with the cubic <i>I</i>a-3d space-group symmetry, and with a very different degree of hydrothermal alteration, were used in this work. High-resolution magic-angle spinning multinuclear magnetic resonance (MAS NMR) spectroscopy, including <sup>29</sup>Si, <sup>27</sup>Al, <sup>23</sup>Na, <sup>133</sup>Cs, and <sup>1</sup>H spectra at 9.4 T, as well as <sup>1</sup>H, <sup>27</sup>Al, <sup>27</sup>Al{<sup>1</sup>H} dipolar evolutions and <sup>27</sup>Al{<sup>29</sup>Si} Heteronuclear Multiple Quantum Coherence (HMCQ) spectra at 17.6 T, has been used to investigate the local structure of pollucite and the role of protons. The <sup>29</sup>Si spectra suggest a local structure with a disordered Si/Al distribution in only one tetrahedral T site, but with a preference of Si atoms for Q<sup>4</sup><sub>1</sub> (3Si,1Al) and Q<sup>4</sup><sub>2</sub> (2Si,2Al) environments, in comparison with random and Loewenstein distributions, due to charge dispersion effects. However, the <sup>27</sup>Al{<sup>1</sup>H} dipolar evolutions suggest two spectroscopically distinct T sites for Al atoms. The <sup>23</sup>Na and <sup>133</sup>Cs spectra indicate broad site distributions for these cavity cations. The anisotropic character of the long-range disordered pollucite structure, with a pseudo-cubic symmetry and lack of strict periodicity, can be explained from an incipient displacive transition to lower symmetry. These pollucite specimens are essentially anhydrous minerals despite the <sup>1</sup>H and the cross-polarization experiments suggesting that some protons exist in the structure as -OH groups, whereas water molecules were only found in relation to the phyllosilicate impurities from alteration in specimen <i>Tanco</i> and perhaps also as liquid water in fluid inclusions.