State of Molecules and Ions in the Structural Channels of Synthetic Beryl with an Ammonium Impurity

The contents of the structural channels of beryl, grown hydrothermally from an ammonium-containing solution, were investigated by IR and EPR spectroscopy. Using IR spectroscopy we found that water molecules, ammonium ions, and a small number of HCl molecules enter the structural channels of beryl in the course of mineral growth. In these beryls, the ammonium ions play the role of alkali cations. The ammonium ions are as rigidly fixed in the lattice as are water molecules; they are eliminated by calcination at high temperatures close to the decomposition temperature. On exposure to radiation at 77 K, the paramagnetic NH₃⁺ and H⁰ radicals are stabilized in the structural channels of beryl. In addition to the known H⁰ radical, other states of atomic hydrogen, interacting with medium protons, are observed as well. For one of the additional radicals, H_b, we suggest the model of atomic hydrogen stabilized at the center of a silicon-oxygen ring with two water molecules in adjacent cavities.