The crystal structure of charmarite – the first case of a 11 × 11 Å superstructure mesh in layered double hydroxides

Charmarite, Mn4Al2(OH)12CO3⋅3H2O, is a hydrotalcite supergroup member (or layered double hydroxide, LDH) with a previously unknown crystal structure and a Mn2+-analogue of quintinite (commonly erroneously reported as ‘2:1 hydrotalcite’). The single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD) data were obtained from the specimen from Mont Saint-Hilaire, Québec, Canada and are best processed in the space group P$\bar{3}$, a = 10.9630(4), c = 15.0732(5) Å and V = 1568.89(12) Å3. The crystal structure has been solved by direct methods and refined to R1 = 0.0750 for 3801 unique reflections with Fo > 2σ(Fo). The charmarite structure has long-range periodicity in the xy plane due to $2\sqrt 3$a’ × $2\sqrt 3$a’ scheme (or 11 × 11 Å) determined for LDHs for the first time (where a’ is a subcell parameter ≈ 3.2 Å). This periodicity is produced by the combination of two superstructures formed by: (1) Mn2+ and Al3+ ordering in the metal-hydroxide layers [Mn4Al2(OH)12]2+ according to the $\sqrt 3$a’ × $\sqrt 3$a’ pattern and (2) the (CO3)2– ordering according to the 2a’ × 2a’ pattern in the [CO3(H2O)3]2– interlayer sheet in order to avoid close contacts between adjacent carbonate groups. The $2\sqrt 3$a’ × $2\sqrt 3$a’ superstructure is an example of the adaptability of the components of the interlayer space to the charge distribution of the metal-hydroxyl layers. The Mn2+ and Al3+ cations have a large difference in size, which apparently leads to the considerable degree of their order as di- and trivalent cations resulting in a higher degree of statistical order of the interlayer components. Both powder and single-crystal XRD data show that the samples studied belong to the hexagonal branch of two-layer polytypes (2T or 2H) with d00n ≈ 7.57 Å. The chemical composition of the samples studied is close to the ideal formula. The Raman spectrum of charmarite is reported and the band assignment is provided.