Structural transformation of a kaolinite and calcite mixture to gehlenite and anorthite

Kaolinite mixed with calcite was sintered at low temperature (1100 °C; 5 °C/min). The successive phase transformations are metakaolinite to gehlenite and then anorthite, although the available phase diagram indicates a direct anorthite recrystallization. Transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction studies of nanocrystallites revealed that the transformation path is favored by the structural similarities of phases. In particular, the pseudolayers of gehlenite have a major orientation relationship with the initial metakaolinite layers. The gehlenite axis, [001]_G, is parallel to the metakaolinite axis, [001]_A. This direct transition is favored by the existence of Si tetrahedral units and 4–fold–coordinated Al in both structures. Ca atoms, initially in the interlayer spacing of metakaolinite, remain in the interlayers of gehlenite. During the second transformation step, anorthite recrystallizes from gehlenite with axis [020]_A parallel to [210]_G. It is proposed that this orientation relationship is favored by the orientation and shape of Ca-atom channels through both structures, along [001]_G and [100]_A axes.