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The origin of native Si-Fe alloy mineral is thought to be related with mantle and aerolite. The native Si-Fe alloy minerals from podiform chromites of the Luobusha ophiolite in the Yarlong Zangbo suture zone were examined by a new method for powder-like diffractograms of small single crystals, using an SMART APEX-CCD area-detector X-ray diffractometer. The powder diffraction pattern shows that the minerals are composed of FeSi, FeSi^sub 2^, β-FeSi^sub 2^ and native silicon. The association of these minerals suggests that the crystallization order of the mineral may be from early to late FeSi[arrow right]FeSi^sub 2^[arrow right]native silicon, accompanied by gradually increasing deoxidization.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Accurate crystal structure determination of complex phosphate Mg-fillowite.—Na2Ca(Mn4Mg2Fe)7[PO4]6 has been finished. Mg-fillowite occurs in muscovite-pegmatite in the Altay area, Xinjiang, China. It is of the trigonal lattice, with space group R-3, unit cell a=1.5143(3)nm, c=4.3191(2) nm, V=8.5736 nm3, Z = 18. The R-factor of the determination accuracy is R (I<2 σ(I)) = 0.0776. The cationic polyhedra consist of two kinds of structural units: compound column and screw column. In three-dimensional space, they are linked with each other through corner sharing or edge sharing to build the entire structure. There are 45 atoms in an asymmetric unit and 720 atoms in a unit cell. In terms of types and connection manners of the coordination polyhedra, the degree of complicity is rarely seen in all mineral crystal structures. Study of such a structure is significant for the classification of phosphate and the building rule of coordination polyhedra in a complex crystal structure.

(Fe4Cr4Ni)9C4 is a metal carbide mineral formed by combination of Fe, Cr and Ni with C. It occurs in a chromite deposit in the Luobusha ophiolite, Tibet. Based on the determination of its crystal structure, the empirical formula is (Fe4.12Cr3.84Ni0.96)8.92C3.70 and the simplified formula is (Fe4Cr4Ni)4C9. The mineral is hexagonal with a = 1.38392(2) nm, c = 0.44690(9) nm, pace group P63 m c, Z=6 and the calculated specific gravity Dx = 7.089 g/cm3. Fe, Cr and Ni occupy different crystallographic sites and their coordination numbers are approximately 12, forming an alternate stacking sequence of flat and puckered layers along the c axis. Some metallic atoms have a defect structure. The interatomic distances of Fe, Cr and Ni are 0.2525-0.2666 nm, and the distances between Fe, Cr, Ni and C are 0.1893-0.2169 nm. The coordination number of carbon is 6. It occurs in interstices of the metallic atoms Fe, Cr and Ni to form trigonalprismatically coordinated polyhedra. These coordination polyhedra are linked with each other via shared corners or shared edges into a new type of metal carbide structure.

On the bases of the study of comparative crystal chemistry of silicates it has been concluded that the octahedra and square pyramids of Ti-0 and Zr-0 play functional role of tetrahedra of Si-0 in the construction of crystal structures. Therefore, those silicates may be named titano-and zircono-silicates. Because of the functional similarity of coordination polyhedra, the structures of cristobalite and feldspar have been compared with those of perovskite and garnet, respectively. As a new concept, the functional replacement of tetrahedra by octahedra and/or pyramids is defined by the authors of this paper for favorable comparison of relative crystal structures.

The crystal structure of astrophyllite K2Na(Fe, Mn, Mg,□)7[Ti2(Si4O12)2|O3](OH, F)4 has been refined. The dimensions of the triclinic unit cell are: a = 0.5359(2) nm,b = 1.1614(4) nm, c = 1.1861(4) nm, α= 113.16(2)°, β= 103.04(2)°,γ= 94.56(2)°,V = 0.6495(5) nm3, Z= 1, space group P1, R=0.057 for 5308 reflections |Fo|>3σ|Fo|. According to structural and compositional differences the monoclinic astrophyllite K2NaNa(Fe, Mn)4Mg2Ti2[Si4O12]2(OH)4(OH, F)2 and astrophyllite should be considered as two different mineral species. Astrophyllite, monoclinic astrophyllite, bafertisite and lamprophyllite contain heteropolyhedral sheets which topologically are related with Si, O sheets of mica where one or several SiO4 tetrahedra are replaced by TiOn polyhedra. Therefore this heterophyllotitanosilicate series represents a kind of functional substitution in inorganic crystals.