Powder diffraction studies of synthetic calcium and lead apatites

Abstract

The crystal structures of M10(PO4)6X2, where M = Ca or Pb and X = OH¯, F¯, Cl¯ or Br¯, have been determined by Rietveld refinement of powder synchrotron X-ray and neutron diffraction data. All the compounds are hexagonal with space group P 63/ m . For the calcium compounds, the lattice parameters are a = 9.4302(5), 9.3475(3), 9.5902(6), 9.6482(6) and c = 6.8911(2), 6.8646(1), 6.7666(2), 6.7788(2) Å, for X = OH¯, F¯, Cl¯, Br¯, respectively. For the lead compounds, the corresponding lattice parameters are a = 9.8612(4), 9.7547(5), 9.9767(4), 10.0618(3) and c = 7.4242(2), 7.2832(2), 7.3255(1), 7.3592(1) Å. In these compounds there are two cation sites, a channel of M(I) atoms and a triangle of M(II) atoms. The anion interacts most strongly with the M(II) atoms with the interaction dictating the position of the anion relative to the M(II) triangle. In Ca10(PO4)6X2, the F¯ ion sits within the triangle planes, while the larger OH¯ and Cl¯ anions are disordered above and below the M(II) triangles. The even larger Br¯ is midway between two triangles at (0, 0, ). Despite the larger size of the isostructural lead compounds, no anions are found in the triangles. The F¯, Cl¯ and Br¯ ions are at (0, 0, ) and the OH¯ ion is disordered at (0, 0, z ). This difference in behaviour is possibly related to the lead 6s electrons. In this paper, the experimental results are presented and possible reasons for the observed differences are discussed.