Lavoisierite, Mn2+8[Al10(Mn3+Mg)][Si11P]O44(OH)12, a new mineral from Piedmont, Italy: the link between “ardennite” and sursassite

The new mineral species lavoisierite, ideally Mn2+8[Al10(Mn3+Mg)][Si11P]O44(OH)12, has been discovered in piemontite-bearing micaschists belonging to the Piedmontese Nappe from Punta Gensane, Viù Valley, Western Alps, Italy. It occurs as yellow-orange acicular to prismatic-tabular crystals up to a few millimeters in length, with white streak and vitreous luster, elongated along [010] and flattened on {001}. Lavoisierite is associated with quartz, ‘‘mica,’’ sursassite, piemontite, spessartine, braunite, and ‘‘tourmaline.’’ Calculated density is 3.576 g cm-3. In plane-polarized light, it is transparent, pleochroic, with pale yellow parallel to [010] and yellow-orange normal to this direction; extinction is parallel and elongation is positive. Birefringence is moderate; the calculated average refraction index n is 1.750. Lavoisierite is orthorhombic, space Group Pnmm, with a 8.6891(10), b 5.7755(3), c 36.9504(20) Å, V 1854.3(2) Å3, Z = 2. Calculated main diffraction lines of the X-ray powder diffraction pattern are [d in Å , (I), (hkl); relative intensities are visually estimated]: 4.62 (m) (112), 2.931 (vs) (1.1.10), 2.765 (s) (1.1.11), 2.598 (s) (310), 2.448 (ms) (028). Chemical analyses by electron microprobe give (in wt%) P2O5 2.08, V2O5 0.37, SiO2 34.81, TiO2 0.13, Al2O3 22.92, Cr2O3 0.32, Fe2O3 0.86, Mn2O3 6.92, MnO 19.09, MgO 5.73, CaO 1.94, Na2O 0.01, H2O 5.44, sum 100.62 wt%. H2O content was calculated from structure refinement. The empirical formula, based on 56 anions, is (Mn2+5.340 Mg1.810Ca0.686Na0.006)S=7.852 (Al8.921Mn3+1.739Mg1.010Fe3+0.214Cr0.084Ti0.032)S=12.000 (Si11.496P0.582V0.081)S=12.159O43.995(OH)12.005. The crystal structure of lavoisierite was solved by direct methods and refined on the basis of 1743 observed reflections to R1 = 4.6 %. The structure is characterized by columns of edge-sharing octahedra running along [010] and linked to each other by means of [SiO4], [Si2O7], and [Si3O10] groups. Lavoisierite, named after the French chemist and biologist Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (1743–1794), displays an unprecedented kind of structure, related to those of ‘‘ardennite’’ and sursassite.