The Crystal Structure of delta-Na2Si2O5

The crystal structure of beta-Na2Si2O5 has been solved and refined to an R index of 0.053 for 933 independent reflections. The compound is monoclinic with space group P21/n (a=8.393(2) ?, b=12.083(3) ?, c=4.843(1) ?, beta=90.37(3)°, V= 491.1(1) ?3, Mr=182.15 u, Z=4, lambda(MoKalpha)=0.71073 ?, Dx=2.46 g/cm3, mu(MoKalpha)=8.3 cm-1). The crystal showed twinning by pseudo-merohedry according to 2100, a feature which we took account of in the refinements. The compound belongs to the group of single layer silicates. Individual sheets can be described as being built by the condensation of zweier single chains of SiO4 tetrahedra parallel to the c-axis or, alternatively, by condensation of vierer single chains parallel to the a-axis. The stacking of the layers parallel to the b-axis results in a three-dimensional structure in which the sodium cations reside between the layers for charge compensation.