Solution mechanisms of silicate in aqueous fluid and H2O in coexisting silicate melts determined in-situ at high pressure and high temperature

The structure of H2O-saturated silicate melts, coexisting silicate-saturated aqueous solutions, and supercritical silicate liquids in the system Na2O·4SiO2–H2O has been characterized with the sample at high temperature and pressure in a hydrothermal diamond anvil cell (HDAC). Structural information was obtained with confocal microRaman and with FTIR microscopy. Fluids and melts were examined along pressure-temperature trajectories defined by the isochores of H2O at nominal densities, ρfluid, (from EOS of pure H2O) of 0.90 and 0.78 g/cm3. With ρfluid = 0.78 g/cm3, water-saturated melt and silicate-saturated aqueous fluid coexist to the highest temperature (800 °C) and pressure (677 MPa), whereas with ρfluid = 0.90 g/cm3, a homogeneous single-phase liquid phase exists through the temperature and pressure range (25–800 °C, 0.1–1033 MPa). Less than 5 vol% quartz precipitates near 650 °C in both experimental series, thus driving Na/Si-ratios of melt + fluid phase assemblages to higher values than that of the Na2O·4SiO2 starting material.Molecular H2O (H2O°) and structurally bonded OH groups were observed in coexisting melts and fluids as well as in supercritical liquids. Their OH/(H2O)-ratio is positively correlated with temperature. The OH/(H2O)° in melts is greater than in coexisting fluids. Structural units of Q3, Q2, Q1, and Q0 type are observed in all phases under all conditions. An expression of the form, 12Q3 + 13H2O⇋⇋2Q2 + 6Q1 + 4Q0, describes the equilibrium among those structural units. This equilibrium shifts to the right with increasing pressure and temperature with a ΔH of the reaction near 425 kJ/mol.