Hydrogen bonding in selected vanadates: a Raman and infrared spectroscopy study.

Water plays an important role in the stability of minerals containing the deca and hexavanadates ions. A selection of minerals including pascoite, huemulite, barnesite, hewettite, metahewettite, hummerite has been analysed. Infrared spectroscopy combined with Raman spectroscopy has enabled the spectra of the water HOH stretching bands to be determined. The use of the Libowitsky type function allows for the estimation of hydrogen bond distances to be determined. The strength of the hydrogen bonds can be assessed by these hydrogen bond distances. An arbitrary value of 2.74A was used to separate the hydrogen bonds into two categories such that bond distances less than this value are considered as strong hydrogen bonds whereas hydrogen bond distances greater than this value are considered relatively weaker. Importantly infrared spectroscopy enables the estimation of hydrogen bond distances using an empirical function.