A paper led by Dr. He, a graduate of our group, on hydrogen bonding in fluorine-bearing brucite has been published in Inorganic Chemistry.
Brucite, Mg(OH)2, has a fundamental layered hydroxide structure and serves as a model material for studying hydrogen bonds in solids. In this study, we combined neutron powder diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and infrared absorption spectroscopy to investigate how fluorine substitution affects hydrogen bonding in brucite. We found that fluorine substitution strengthens hydrogen bonds under ambient conditions, whereas under high pressure it suppresses the elongation of hydroxyl bonds and mitigates pressure-induced hydrogen-bond strengthening. These findings provide fundamental insights into the structure–property relations of layered hydroxides through elemental substitution and pressure, whilst also contributing to our understanding of hydrous minerals and the fluorine cycle in the deep Earth.
He X., Kagi H., Komatsu K., Sano-Furukawa A., Abe J., Fukuyama K., Shinmei T., Nakano S. (2024) High-pressure behaviors of hydrogen bonds in fluorine-doped brucite. Inorganic Chemistry, 63, 22349-22360.