Theoretical OH stretching vibrations in dravite

Density functional theory is used to investigate the vibrational stretching properties of OH groups in ideal and chemically disordered dravite models. Different schemes of cationic occupancy are considered, including the occurrence of vacancies at the X site and Mg-Al inversion between the Y and Z sites. The harmonic coupling between different OH groups is found to be smaller than 1 cm(-1), indicating that the OH stretching dynamic in dravite can be described by considering a collection of nearly independent single OH oscillators. Their harmonic stretching frequency is linearly correlated with the corresponding OH bond length and most of the bands observed in the experimental vibrational spectra can be interpreted as consequences of the cationic occupancy of the sites coordinated to the OH group. The (v)(OH) and (w)(OH) stretching frequencies are affected by the Mg-Al inversion and by the presence of vacancies at the X site. In this last case, the frequencies depend on the isolated or more concentrated character of the X vacancy distribution along the c axis. Based on theoretical stretching frequencies, new interpretations are proposed for some of the bands experimentally observed in synthetic samples of dravite and magnesio-foitite.