The influence of cation properties on the shape of silicate chains

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Abstract
The shape of silicate single chains is described by their periodicity (number of tetrahedra in the repeat unit of the chain) and the degree of shrinkage compared with a maximum stretched chain.From a regression analysis of 54 single chain silicates it is concluded that such silicates can be divided into two groups: (1) Silicates with odd-periodic chains (pyroxenoids and pyroxenes) and (2) silicates with even-periodic chains.Although the results of the analysis are not accurate enough to make reliable quantitative predictions about the shape of a silicate chain merely from the chemical composition of the silicate, some general relations could be found. So it turned out that even-periodic chains become less stretched with higher mean electronegativity and higher mean valence of their cations. In contrast, for odd-periodic chain silicates the degree of chain shrinkage is strongly correlated with the mean electronegativity and less so with the mean radius of the cations. On the other hand, the periodicity of the silicate chains is directly correlated with their degree of shrinkage. These results of the regression analysis are explained in terms of simple crystal chemical considerations.

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