2+ 2+ Partitioning of Co and Mn into meridianiite (MgSO4·11H2O): ternary solubility diagrams at 270 K; cation site distribution determined by single- crystal time-of-flight neutron diffraction and density functional theory. ! A. D. Fortes,1,2,3,† I. G. Wood,2 K. A. Hudson-Edwards,3 and M. J. Gutmann1 ! 1ISIS Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Chilton, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0QX, U.K. 2Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, U.K. 3Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, U.K. ! †Current permanent address, ISIS Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. Corresponding author email
[email protected] ! Abstract ! 2+ We have grown single crystals of M SO4 hydrates at 270 K from aqueous solutions in the ternary systems CoSO4–MgSO4–H2O and MnSO4–MgSO4–H2O. These systems exhibit broad stability fields for a triclinic undecahydrate on the Mg-rich side (i.e., Co- or Mn- bearing meridianiite solid solutions) and stability fields for monoclinic heptahydrates on the Mg-poor side (i.e., Mg-bearing solid solutions of bieberite or mallardite). The solubility curves and distribution coefficients, describing the partitioning of M2+ ions between liquid and solid phases, have been determined by thermo-gravimetric and spectroscopic techniques. 2+ A subset of M SO4·11H2O specimens were selected for single-crystal time-of-flight neutron diffraction analysis in order to evaluate preferential occupancy of symmetry-inequivalent coordination polyhedra in the structure. Considering the nearly identical dimensions of the first coordination shells, there is a surprising difference in the distribution of Co and Mn over the two available sites.