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Understanding the Raman spectral features of phyllosilicates
Author(s) -
Wang Alian,
Freeman John J.,
Jolliff Bradley L.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of raman spectroscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.748
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1097-4555
pISSN - 0377-0486
DOI - 10.1002/jrs.4680
Subject(s) - raman spectroscopy , silicate , mars exploration program , orthosilicate , silicate minerals , chemistry , planetary surface , mineralogy , geology , astrobiology , tetraethyl orthosilicate , physics , optics , organic chemistry
Phyllosilicates, one of the five major structural types of silicates, have highly variable structures and very complex chemistry. This manuscript reports the first comprehensive Raman spectroscopic study of the five major groups of phyllosilicates. We first demonstrate that phyllosilicates have a unique Raman spectral pattern that can be used to distinguish them from orthosilicate, chain silicate, ring silicate, and framework silicate with different degrees of silicate polymerization. Second, we distinguish characteristics of Raman spectral features associated with phyllosilicates of the different stacking sequences and show how minor changes in chemical compositions and structural details in some phyllosilicates can affect their Raman spectral patterns, peak positions, and peak widths. From this study, we extract several empirical rules that can help to identify and characterize phyllosilicates based on in situ Raman spectroscopic measurements. These results are significant for planetary surface exploration, especially Mars, where the existence of phyllosilicates as a result of alteration of primary minerals has been indicated by Vis‐Near IR spectroscopy used in orbital remote sensing and recently by X‐ray diffraction in surface exploration. The spectral data collected from this study are also useful for laboratory study of terrestrial phyllosilicate samples. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.