Crystal Chemistry of the Copper Oxalate Biomineral Moolooite: The First Single-Crystal X-ray Diffraction Studies and Thermal Behavior.

ABSTRACT: Moolooite, Cu(C₂O₄)·nH₂O, is a typical biomineral which forms due to Cu-bearing minerals coming into contact with oxalic acid sources such as bird guano deposits or lichens, and no single crystals of moolooite of either natural or synthetic origin have been found yet. This paper reports, for the first time, on the preparation of single crystals of a synthetic analog of the copper-oxalate biomineral moolooite, and on the refinement of its crystal structure from the single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD) data. Along with the structural model, the SCXRD experiment showed the significant contribution of diffuse scattering to the overall diffraction data, which comes from the nanostructural disorder caused by stacking faults of Cu oxalate chains as they

SUBMITTER: Kornyakov IV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10094873 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature