Li2Si3O7: Crystal structure and Raman spectroscopy

The crystal structure of metastable Li2Si3O7 was determined from single crystal X-ray diffraction data. The orthorhombic crystals were found to adopt space group Pmca with unit cell parameters of image, image and image. The content of the cell is image. The obtained structural model was refined to a R-value of 0.035. The structure exhibits silicate sheets, which can be classified as image[Si6O14] using the silicate nomenclature of Liebau. The layers are build up from zweier single chains running parallel to c. Raman spectra are presented and compared with other silicates. Furthermore, the structure is discussed versus Na2Si3O7.