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The incorporation of hydroxyl into zircon

  • Dustin Trail EMAIL logo , Jay B. Thomas and E. Bruce Watson
Published/Copyright: April 2, 2015
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American Mineralogist
From the journal American Mineralogist Volume 96 Issue 1

Abstract

We investigated the incorporation of hydrogen into zircon at 1650 and 1550 °C, and pressures of 2.5 and 1.5 GPa under water-saturated conditions in a piston-cylinder apparatus. Concentrations were determined by polarized Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy using the zircon absorption coefficient εi = 36 241 cm-2 per mol H2O/L and range from ~90 to 200 ppm H2O by weight. Crystals grown in the presence of Ti4+ or Th4+ do not differ significantly in their H2O content. We also synthesized zircons with various concentrations of Lu2O3 and Al2O3 to characterize changes in band positions and hydrogen concentrations related to coupled substitutions in zircon. Trivalent cations correlate in a nearly 1:1 molar fashion with hydrogen highlighting a potentially important coupled substitution in high water activity environments. Bands from undoped and doped zircons in the OH stretching region of the infrared spectrum show broad agreement when compared to spectra from natural samples. Heating experiments at 1 atm and 1000 °C produce a decrease in the integrated area; while some bands disappeared entirely, others are particularly stable with little decrease in integrated area after 128 h at 1000 °C. Results presented here help eliminate uncertainties that arose from Fourier transform infrared studies of natural zircons and provide further clarification for the origin of band positions in natural samples. In addition to the water activity of the crystallizing medium, the H2O content of natural grains will likely be significantly influenced by trivalent cation concentrations. In crustal zircons especially, trivalent atomic contents generally exceed those of phosphorus, meaning that hydrogen may be particularly important for trivalent cation charge compensation. An unanticipated result of this study was the development of a reasonably effective technique that produces relatively homogenous zircons doped with minor impurities. This technique could potentially be utilized in studies aimed at developing zircon standards, because it yields crystals that appear to be more homogenous than those produced by the flux method, and are generally free of inclusions.

Keywords : Nominally anhydrous minerals; zircon; water; coupled substitution; FTIR; zircon synthesis
Received: 2010-1-20
Accepted: 2010-7-29
Published Online: 2015-4-2
Published in Print: 2011-1-1

© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. A mineralogical, geochemical, and microbiogical assessment of the antimony- and arsenic-rich neutral mine drainage tailings near Pezinok, Slovakia
  2. Luminescence of diamonds from metamorphic rocks
  3. Crystal chemistry of Th in fluorapatite
  4. Hydrogen-bond and cation partitioning in muscovite: A single-crystal neutron-diffraction study at 295 and 20 K
  5. Spectroscopic characterization of transition metal impurities in natural montebrasite/amblygonite
  6. An assessment of the potential benefits of ion implants as trace-element reference material for electron probe X-ray microanalysis: The case of invisible gold
  7. The incorporation of hydroxyl into zircon
  8. Association between phosphorus and iron oxides in manganese ores
  9. Equation of state of carbonated hydroxylapatite at ambient temperature up to 10 GPa: Significance of carbonate
  10. Monoclinic tridymite in clast-rich impact melt rock from the Chesapeake Bay impact structure
  11. Phase boundary between perovskite and post-perovskite structures in MnGeO3 determined by in situ X-ray diffraction measurements using sintered diamond anvils
  12. Hydrogenation of FeSi under high pressure
  13. Fe-Ti oxide-silicate (QUIlF-type) equilibria in feldspathoid-bearing systems
  14. In situ bubble vesiculation in silicic magmas
  15. First-principles calculation of the elastic moduli of sheet silicates and their application to shale anisotropy
  16. A new semi-micro wet chemical method for apatite analysis and its application to the crystal chemistry of fluorapatite-chlorapatite solid solutions
  17. New insight into the structural transformation of partially dehydroxylated pyrophyllite
  18. A 94-layer long-period mica polytype: A TEM study
  19. The crystal structure of stichtite, re-examination of barbertonite, and the nature of polytypism in MgCr hydrotalcites
  20. Vorlanite (CaU6+)O4—A new mineral from the Upper Chegem caldera, Kabardino-Balkaria, Northern Caucasus, Russia
  21. The structure of braitschite, a calcium rare earth borate
  22. Alteration of dehydrated schoepite and soddyite to studtite, [(UO2)(O2)(H2O)2](H2O)2
  23. A reinvestigation of smectite illitization in experimental hydrothermal conditions: Results from X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy
  24. Letter. The elastic properties of diopside, CaMgSi2O6
https://doi.org/10.2138/am.2011.3506
Keywords for this article
Nominally anhydrous minerals; zircon; water; coupled substitution; FTIR; zircon synthesis

Articles in the same Issue

  1. A mineralogical, geochemical, and microbiogical assessment of the antimony- and arsenic-rich neutral mine drainage tailings near Pezinok, Slovakia
  2. Luminescence of diamonds from metamorphic rocks
  3. Crystal chemistry of Th in fluorapatite
  4. Hydrogen-bond and cation partitioning in muscovite: A single-crystal neutron-diffraction study at 295 and 20 K
  5. Spectroscopic characterization of transition metal impurities in natural montebrasite/amblygonite
  6. An assessment of the potential benefits of ion implants as trace-element reference material for electron probe X-ray microanalysis: The case of invisible gold
  7. The incorporation of hydroxyl into zircon
  8. Association between phosphorus and iron oxides in manganese ores
  9. Equation of state of carbonated hydroxylapatite at ambient temperature up to 10 GPa: Significance of carbonate
  10. Monoclinic tridymite in clast-rich impact melt rock from the Chesapeake Bay impact structure
  11. Phase boundary between perovskite and post-perovskite structures in MnGeO3 determined by in situ X-ray diffraction measurements using sintered diamond anvils
  12. Hydrogenation of FeSi under high pressure
  13. Fe-Ti oxide-silicate (QUIlF-type) equilibria in feldspathoid-bearing systems
  14. In situ bubble vesiculation in silicic magmas
  15. First-principles calculation of the elastic moduli of sheet silicates and their application to shale anisotropy
  16. A new semi-micro wet chemical method for apatite analysis and its application to the crystal chemistry of fluorapatite-chlorapatite solid solutions
  17. New insight into the structural transformation of partially dehydroxylated pyrophyllite
  18. A 94-layer long-period mica polytype: A TEM study
  19. The crystal structure of stichtite, re-examination of barbertonite, and the nature of polytypism in MgCr hydrotalcites
  20. Vorlanite (CaU6+)O4—A new mineral from the Upper Chegem caldera, Kabardino-Balkaria, Northern Caucasus, Russia
  21. The structure of braitschite, a calcium rare earth borate
  22. Alteration of dehydrated schoepite and soddyite to studtite, [(UO2)(O2)(H2O)2](H2O)2
  23. A reinvestigation of smectite illitization in experimental hydrothermal conditions: Results from X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy
  24. Letter. The elastic properties of diopside, CaMgSi2O6
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