Crystal structure and crystal chemistry of melanovanadite, a natural vanadium bronze.

The crystal structure of melanovanadite from Minas Ragra, Peru, has been determined in space group P1. The triclinic unit cell (non-standard) has a 6.360(2), b 18.090(9), c 6.276(2) A, alpha 110.18(4)o, beta 101.62(3)o, gamma 82.86(4)o. A subcell with b' = b/2 was found by crystal-structure analysis to contain CaV4O10.5H2O. The subcell has a layer structure in which the vanadate sheet consists of corner-shared tetrahedral VO4 and double square-pyramidal V2O8 groups, similar to that previously found in synthetic CsV2O5. Refinement of the full structure (R = 0.056) showed that the Ca atom, which half-occupies a general position in the subcell, is 90% ordered at one of these sites in the whole unit cell. Bond length-bond strength estimates indicate that the tetrahedra contain V5+, and the square pyramids, V4+.-J.A.Z.