Synthesis and vibrational spectroscopic characterisation of nickel containing aurichalcite

Raman spectroscopy complimented with supplementary infrared spectroscopy has been used to characterise a synthetic nickel substituted aurichalcite a zinc/nickel hydroxy carbonate, (Zn, Ni2+)5(CO3)2(OH)6. This symmetry reduction results in multiple bands in both the symmetric stretching and bending regions. The intense band for the Ni-aurichalcite at 1070 cm−1 is assigned to the ν1(CO3)2− symmetric stretching mode. Three Raman bands assigned to the ν3(CO3)2− antisymmetric stretching modes are observed for Ni-aurichalcite at 1372, 1480 and 1543 cm−1.