Im. Steele et al., CRYSTAL-STRUCTURE OF MACPHERSONITE (PB4SO4(CO3)(2)(OH)(2)) - COMPARISON WITH LEADHILLITE, Mineralogical Magazine, 62(4), 1998, pp. 451-459
The crystal structure of macphersonite (Pb4SO4(CO3)(2)(OH)(2), Pcab, a
= 9.242(2), b = 23.050(5), c = 10.383(2) Angstrom) from Leadhills, Sc
otland has been determined to an R = 0.053. The structure has many fea
tures in common with its polymorph leadhillite including three distinc
t types of layers. Layer A includes sulphate tetrahedra, Layer B is co
mposed of Pb and OH, while Layer C is composed of Pb and CO3 with topo
logy identical to that in cerussite. In both macphersonite and leadhil
lite these layers are slacked along [010] as ...BABCCBABCC... The doub
le CC layer is almost identical in the mio structures and forms a stru
ctural backbone and occurs in other structures including hydrocerussit
e and plumbonacrite. The sulphate layer shows the greatest difference
between the two structures and can be described by a pattern of up or
down pointing tetrahedra. For macphersonite the sequence along [001] i
s ...UDUDUD... while in leadhillite the sequence along [010] is ...UDD
UUDDU... This latter sequence effectively doubles b relative to the eq
uivalent direction in macphersonite. Susannite, a third polymorph, may
have yet another sequence of sulphates to give trigonal symmetry; by
heating leadhillite, displacive movements of sulphate groups may occur
with a conversion to susannite.