• journal_title：American Mineralogist
• Contributor：Monica Dapiaggi ; Charles A. Geiger ; Gilberto Artioli
• Publisher：Mineralogical Society of America
• Date：2005-
• Format：text/html
• Language：en
• Identifier：10.2138/am.2005.1716
• journal_abbrev：American Mineralogist
• issn：0003-004X
• volume：90
• issue：2-3
• firstpage：506
• section：Letters

A series of synthetic pyrope-grossular garnets (Mg₃Al₂Si₃O₁₂-Ca₃Al₂Si₃O₁₂) were investigated by powder X-ray synchrotron radiation at 5 K to determine their microscopic structural strain, which may be responsible for the observed excess enthalpy of mixing for this binary. This substitutional solid solution provides an excellent system for investigating microscopic-macroscopic relationships and the physical nature behind non-ideal thermodynamic mixing behavior in silicates, because of the measurable nonidealities shown by its enthalpy and volume of mixing. An analysis of the X-ray refection profiles, based on theoretical considerations of X-ray line broadening, permits for the first time a direct experimental determination of crystallite size and the root-mean-square structural strain for a mineral solid solution. The measured microscopic strain shows positive and asymmetric deviations from linearity across the join with the largest excess in pyrope-rich compositions. There is a good correlation between the structural strain and the macroscopic enthalpy of mixing behavior for pyrope-grossular garnets as measured by calorimetry.