Thermal Behavior of Pyromorphite (Pb<sub>10</sub>(PO<sub>4</sub>)<sub>6</sub>Cl<sub>2</sub>): In Situ High Temperature Powder X-ray Diffraction Study

oleh: Tingting Gu, Shan Qin, Xiang Wu

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2020-11-01

Deskripsi

Pyromorphite is one of the important end member lead apatites that has potential applications in environment remediation. The thermal behavior of natural pyromorphite, Pb<sub>10</sub>(PO<sub>4</sub>)<sub>6</sub>Cl<sub>2</sub>, has been investigated up to 1373 K at room-pressure using a powder X-ray diffraction device equipped with a heating system. Pyromorphite experiences melting and decomposing at 1373 K into lead phosphate (Pb<sub>3</sub>(PO<sub>4</sub>)<sub>2</sub>), and lead dioxide (PbO<sub>2</sub>) with reaction with air. The fit of the temperature–volume data yields a linear volume expansion coefficient <i>α<sub>V</sub></i> = 4.5 (±0.02) × 10<sup>−5</sup> K<sup>−1</sup>. The linear expansion coefficients for lattice parameters present the anisotropic thermal expansibility, i.e., <i>α<sub>a</sub></i> = (±0.06) × 10<sup>−5</sup> K<sup>−1</sup> and <i>α<sub>c</sub></i> = 2.2 (±0.06) × 10<sup>−5</sup> K<sup>−1</sup>. We looked into the crystal chemistry and proposed an expression to quantitatively evaluate the structural evolution of pyromorphite upon high temperature by calculating the twist angle of the Pb(1)O<sub>6</sub> metaprism, which decreases at elevated temperatures. A distinct drop of the twist angle was observed at ~1100–1200 K, which might be a sign for the phase transition to a low symmetric subgroup. The variation of the twist angle is more sensitive than that of the unit cell; therefore, it can be applied to monitor the structural and phase changes of apatite group materials in general.