Compressibility and thermal expansion of magnesium phosphates

Abstract

The ambient-temperature compressibility and room-pressure thermal expansion of two Mg3(PO4)2 polymorphs (farringtonite = Mg3(PO4)2-I, with 5- and 6-fold coordinated Mg, and chopinite = “Mg-sarcopside” = [6]Mg3(PO4)2-II), three Mg2PO4OH polymorphs (althausite, hydroxylwagnerite and ε-Mg2PO4OH, all with [5]Mg and [6]Mg) and phosphoellenbergerite ([6]Mg) were measured on synthetic powders using a synchrotron-based multi-anvil apparatus to 5.5 GPa and a laboratory high-temperature diffractometer, with whole-pattern fitting procedures. Bulk moduli range from 64.5 GPa for althausite to 88.4 GPa for hydroxylwagnerite, the high-pressure Mg2PO4OH polymorph. Chopinite, based on an olivine structure with ordered octahedral vacancies (K0 = 81.6 GPa), and phosphoellenbergerite, composed of chains of face-sharing octahedra (K0 = 86.4 GPa), are distinctly more compressible than their homeotypical silicate (127 and 133 GPa, respectively). The compressibility anisotropy is the highest for chopinite and the lowest for phosphoellenbergerite. First-order parameters of quadratic thermal expansions range from v1 = 2.19×10-5 K−1 for ε-Mg2PO4OH to v1 = 3.58×10-5 K−1 for althausite. Phosphates have higher thermal-expansion coefficients than the homeotypical silicates. Thermal anisotropy is the highest for farringtonite and the lowest for hydroxylwagnerite and chopinite. These results set the stage for a thermodynamic handling of phase-equilibrium data obtained up to 3 GPa and 1000 °C in the MgO–P2O5–H2O and MgO–Al2O3–P2O5–H2O systems.