The structure of, Be 2 SiO 4

Abstract
The investigation described in this paper was undertaken in the hope of tracing a relationship between the structure of phenacite and structures of other silicates of simple composition, such as olivine (Mg, Fe) 2 SiO 4 . Although the chemical composition is so simple, the structure proved to be unexpectedly complex, and to present interesting problems for analysis. The difficulties of X-ray analysis increase rapidly with the number of parameters which have to be determined. In the case of phenacite, the symmetry of the structure imposes no limitations on the position of the seven atoms in the molecule, so that twenty-one parameters are required to define the structure. In the present analysis, an attempt is made to measure the fifteen parameters which determine the positions of the silicon and oxygen atoms. It is possible to do this without completely defining the structure, because the scattering effects of the silicon and oxygen atoms are so very much greater than that of the beryllium atom.

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