Abstract
High resolution transmission electron microscopy studies on the lillianite group minerals from the Ivigtut cryolite deposit, Ivigtut, South Greenland revealed the existence of disordered intergrowths of lillianite/gustavite-like blocks (N = 4) and heyrovskyite-like (N = 7) structural blocks. One disorder sequence is examined in detail, which gave an average homologue number N = 4.92 corresponding to a composition of Pb(3.92-2x) Bi(2+x)Ag(x)S6.92 with x ~ 1.2. An Axial Next-Nearest Neighour Ising model was used to follow the fluctuations in the average homologue number N across the crystal. This yielded compositional fluctuations of the order of 70-170 Å over a 1800 Å region of the crystal, with a 202 Å lamella of ordered vikingite. Trends in the randomness of the gustavite-vikingite intergrowth were evaluated and the dominant slab sequence was found to be 4,4,4,7 and 4,4,7,7, suggesting that some longer period homologues may be stable. A number of defects were noted in which changes in slab widths were accommodated. The origin of these partially ordered/disordered lillianite homologues is discussed.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 917-926 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Mineralogical Magazine |
Volume | 63 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 1999 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Disorder
- Greenland
- HRTEM
- Ivigtut
- Lillianite group minerals