Site occupancies determination

The rigidity of the basic silicate structures exerts a greater controlled influence on cation site symmetries than do the individual cation charges, an important difference from the oxides where the anions have more freedom of movement. The ease with which Fe and Fe + cations can be distinguished and site occupancies determined in oxides by Mossbauer spectroscopy suggests a logical extension to similar studies in silicates, and considerable progress has been made in this direction. 

If mixing in each site is not ideal, would differ from the real equilibrium constant by the quotient of activity coefficients and hence may depend on composition. The measurement of the site occupancy (the fraction of Fe and Mg in each of Ml and M2 sites) is not trivial. There are two methods to determine the intracrystalline site distribution. One is by Mossbauer spectroscopy (MS), in which there are a pair of outer and smaller peaks, which are due to Fe in Ml site, and a pair of inner and larger peaks, which are due to Fe in M2 site (Figure 2-3). The ratio of Fe in Ml site to Fe in M2 site is assumed to be the area ratio of the pair of Ml peaks to the pair of M2 peaks. Using total Fe content from electron microprobe analysis, and the ratio from Mossbauer spectroscopy, Fe(Ml) and Fe(M2) concentrations can be obtained. 

The second method of measuring the site occupancy of Fe and Mg in Ml and M2 sites in orthopyroxene is by X-ray diffraction (XRD). In this method, singlecrystal X-ray reflection intensity data are collected. The positions (angles) of X-ray reflections are determined by the structure, but the intensities are influenced by concentrations of the individual elements in each site. Hence, with structure refinement, information on elemental distribution between Ml and M2 sites may be obtained. 

Differences in Afor different AB5Hn compounds compared with A for CeCosHs are listed in Table III. The values of these numbers (see Table III), calculated using the fractional site occupations for the 0 phase, can be compared with the experimentally determined entropy differences listed in Table I. The calculated configurational entropy differences (see Table III) agree satisfactorily with the experimental data (see Table I) currently available for seven ABsHn compounds. Structures of some ABsHn compounds deduced from neutron diffraction data (4) are listed in Table I. For compounds whose structures have not been determined, the occupation numbers listed in Table III are in best agreement with the thermodynamic data. 

Cation Site Distribution, Thin-film EDS analysis can also be used to quantitatively determine the site occupancy of atoms in a known crystal structure. Atom Location by Channeling Enhanced Microanalysis (ALCHEMI) is a technique which utilises electronchanneling enhanced X-ray emission for specific atoms in a crystal when appropriately oriented relative to the incident beam [43]. The method involves no adjustable parameters, can be used on relatively small areas of sample and provides fractional occupancies of atom positions [44] Unlike X-ray diffraction which has had limited success with adjacent elements in the periodic table [e.g. 45], ALCHEMI can provide site occupancies for adjacent elements and is relatively insensitive to sample thickness or the precise electron beam orientation [44] ... 

Another test for specific labeling is to determine whether the ligand binding site is blocked. But, as 1 pointed out in the discussion of photoinactivation experiments, there are several other possible causes of apparent binding site occupation besides the covalent attachment of a ligand. It has also been noted that specific labeling as defined by a protection experiment may not always yield a blocked receptor when the photoaffinity label is a macromolecule. When sodium channels in tissue culture cells were labeled... 

Toraya s WPPD approach is quite similar to the Rietveld method it requires knowledge of the chemical composition of the individual phases (mass absorption coefficients of phases of the sample), and their unit cell parameters from indexing. The benefit of this method is that it does not require the structural model required by the Rietveld method. Furthermore, if the quality of the crystallographic structure is poor and contains disordered pharmaceutical or poorly refined solvent molecules, quantification by the WPPD approach will be unbiased by an inadequate structural model, in contrast to the Rietveld method. If an appropriate internal standard of known quantity is introduced to the sample, the method can be applied to determine the amorphous phase composition as well as the crystalline components.9 The Rietveld method uses structural-based parameters such as atomic coordinates and atomic site occupancies are required for the calculation of the structure factor, in addition to the parameters refined by the WPPD method of Toraya. The additional complexity of the Rietveld method affords a greater amount of information to be extracted from the data set, due to the increased number of refinable parameters. Furthermore, the method is commonly referred to as a standardless method, since the structural model serves the role of a standard crystalline phase. It is generally best to minimize the effect of preferred orientation through sample preparation. In certain instances models of its influence on the powder pattern can be used to improve the refinement.12... 

The conventional method for determining cation ordering and site populations within a crystal structure is by diffraction techniques using X-ray, electron and neutron sources. For determining site occupancies of transition metal ions, these methods have been supplemented by a variety of spectroscopic techniques involving measurements of Mossbauer, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR or ESR), X-ray absorption (EXAFS and XANES), X-ray photoelectron (XPS), infrared and optical absorption spectra. 

The technique of channeling-enhanced X-ray emission (CHEXE) has enabled cation site occupancies to be determined in various minerals, including transition metal ions in spinels and ferromagnesian silicates (Taftp, 1982 Taftp and Spence, 1982 Smyth and Taftp, 1982 McCormick etal., 1987). The method, which is based on relative intensities of X-ray peaks measured on crystals with diameters as small as 50 nm under the electron microscope, is particularly useful for determining site occupancies of minor elements with concentrations as low as 0.05 atom per cent in a structure. The most important criterion for the determination of element distribution in a mineral by this technique is that the cation sites should lie on alternating crystallographic planes. In order to make quantitative site population estimates, additional information is required, particularly the occupancy of at least one element in one of the sites or in another site that lines up with one of the sites of interest (McCormick et al., 1987). For example, cation site occupancies by CHEXE measurements have been determined from X-ray peak intensity ratios of Si to Ni, Mn, Cr and Fe in forsterite, as well as thermal disordering of these cations in heated olivines (Smyth and Taftp, 1982). 

Contemporary with these classical developments of analytical geochemistry were the advances made of X-ray and neutron diffraction techniques for determinating the crystal structures of minerals, beginning in the 1920 s and continuing to the present day. More recently, crystal structure refinements have been complemented by a variety of spectroscopic techniques which have provided information on cation valences, site occupancies and nearest-neighbour environments in the mineral structures. Several examples were described in chapter 6, including crystal chemical data summarized in tables 6.2 and 6.5. 

Forbes, C. E. (1983) Analysis of the spin hamiltonian parameters for Cr3+ in mirror and inversion symmetry sites of alexandrite (Al Cr BeO,). Determination of the relative site occupancy by EPR. J. Chem. Phys., 79, 2590-5. 

McCormick, T. C., Smyth, J. R. Lofgren, G. E. (1987) Site occupancies of minor elements in synthetic olivines as determined by channeling-enhanced X-ray emission. Phys. Chem. Minerals, 14, 368-72. 

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