Structure and thermal expansion of a new polymorph of pentahydrite (MgSO4·5H2O)

DOI

In our high-pressure studies of candidate outer solar system minerals using PEARL, we have found that MgSO4.7H2O (epsomite) decomposes to a lower hydrate mixed with water ice. Due to resolution limitations and uncertainty concerning the true composition of the hydrate, we were unable to index the neutron powder data. Using a new STFC grant, we have constructed a piston-cylinder apparatus and liquid-nitrogen recovery system, synthesised the high-pressure mixture and recovered it to ambient pressure. Using X-ray powder diffraction, we have been able to determine that the hydrate is a new polymorph of MgSO4.5H2O, with orthorhombic symmetry rather than the triclinic symmetry of the known room-pressure phase.Our goal is to complete the structure of the new pentahydrate, identifying the sites of all H-atoms, and to precisely quantify the thermal expansion.

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.85068903
Metadata Access https://icatisis.esc.rl.ac.uk/oaipmh/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_datacite&identifier=oai:icatisis.esc.rl.ac.uk:inv/85068903
Provenance
Creator Dr Weiwei Wang; Professor Ian Wood; Dr Dominic Fortes; Dr Christopher Howard
Publisher ISIS Neutron and Muon Source
Publication Year 2020
Rights CC-BY Attribution 4.0 International; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
OpenAccess true
Contact isisdata(at)stfc.ac.uk
Representation
Resource Type Dataset
Discipline Photon- and Neutron Geosciences
Temporal Coverage Begin 2017-05-18T07:00:00Z
Temporal Coverage End 2017-05-20T19:05:14Z