Study of Ga(3+)-induced hydrothermal crystallization of an α-quartz type Ga(1-x)Fe(x)PO4 single crystal by in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS).

The dissolution of α-FePO(4) and the α-Ga(0.75)Fe(0.25)PO(4) solid solution with α-quartz-type structures under hydrothermal conditions in 1 M HNO(3) aqueous solution was investigated by in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) at the Fe K-edge. The solubility of α-FePO(4) increases with temperature and is higher at 25 MPa than at 50 MPa. The Fe(3+) cation in solution is 6-fold coordinated with an average Fe-O distance close to 2.0 Å. A similar experiment was performed with a solid solution of α-quartz-type Ga(0.75)Fe(0.25)PO(4) as the starting phase under a pressure of 25 MPa. By varying the temperature from 303 K up to 573 K a single crystal was grown with 23% Fe(3+) with the α-quartz-type structure. These results show that the crystallization of pure α-quartz-type FePO(4) by the hydrothermal method is not possible due to the formation of very stable Fe(3+) hexa-aquo complexes Fe(H(2)O)(6) and to the absence of FeO(4) tetrahedra in solution. Ga(3+) cations in solution induce the formation of gallophosphate complexes at the solid-liquid interface, which are at the origin of the nuclei for crystallization. We propose a crystallization mechanism in which the Fe(3+) substitutes Ga(3+) with a 4-fold coordination in mixed (iron/gallo)-phosphate complexes that leads to the growth of an α-quartz-type Ga(0.77)Fe(0.23)PO(4) single crystal.