Essential features of the polytypic charoite-96 structure compared to charoite-90

AbstractCharoite, ideally (K,Sr,Ba,Mn)15–16(Ca,Na)32[(Si70(O,OH)180)](OH,F)4·nH20, is a rock-forming mineral from the Murun massif in Yakutia, Sakha Republic, Siberia, Russia, where it occurs in a unique alkaline intrusion. Charoite occurs as four different polytypes, which are commonly intergrown in nanocrystallme fibres. We report the structure of charoite-96(a =32.11(6),b =19.77(4),c =7.23(1) Å, β = 95.85(9)°,V =4565(24) Å3, space groupP21/m),which was solvedab initioby direct methods on the basis of 2676 unique electron diffraction reflections collected by automated diffraction tomography and refined toR1/wR2=0.34/0.37. The structure of charoite-96 is related to that of the charoite-90,…