Editing Dickite (section)

==Structure==
Dickite has a [[monoclinic crystal system]] and its crystal class is domatic (m). This crystal system contains two non-equal axes (a and b) that are perpendicular to each other and a third axis (c) that is inclined with respect to the a axis. The a and c axes lie in a plane. Dickite involves an interlayer bonding with at least 3 identifiable bonds: an [[ionic bond|ionic]] type interaction due to net unbalanced charges on the layers, [[Van der Waals forces]] between layers and [[hydrogen bonds]] between oxygen atoms on the surface of one layer and hydroxyl groups on the opposing surface. A hydrogen bond, as the term is used here, involves a long range interaction between hydrogen of a [[hydroxyl group]] coordinated to a [[cation]] and an oxygen atom coordinated to another cation. The reaction is predominantly electrostatic; hence an ionic bonding model is appropriate. Its [[axial ratio]] is a=0.576, b=1, c=1.6135.

The hexagonal network of Si-O tetrahedra along with the superimposed layer of Al-O, OH octahedra make up the kaolin layer found in dickite. Dickite is composed of regular sequences of one, two and six kaolin layers. Analysis of the dickite structure reveals the space group to be C4s-Cc. The a and c axis both lie on the glide plane of symmetry.<ref name=Brind/> Dickite's structure is made up of a shared layer of corner-sharing tetrahedra filled by a plane of oxygens and hydroxyls along with a sheet of edge-sharing octahedra with every third site left empty.<ref name=cruz/>

An experiment was conducted using a pseudo-hexagonal crystal of dickite to determine the unit cell information and the layers that exist within dickite. It was found that there are six layers within the kaolin layer within dickite. This is evidenced in the following findings. There is an oxygen atom from the all oxygen layer that lies at the center. The atoms of the O layer, the Si layer and the O, (OH) layer are situated for the ideal kaolin layer.<ref name=Brind/>

X-ray experiments were performed by C. J. Ksanda and Tom F. W. Barth and it was concluded that dickite is composed of tiny layers of [[cations]] and [[anions]] which are parallel to the a-b plane stacked on top of one another which they found to be exactly as Gruner had described. It was also concluded that the two dimensional arrangement of some of the atoms are not as Gruner described.<ref name="barth">{{Cite journal|vauthors=Ksanda CJ, Barth TF|date=1935|title=Note on the Structure of Dickite and Other Clay Minerals|url=https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/msa/ammin/article-abstract/20/9/631/537647/note-on-the-structure-of-dickite-and-other-clay|journal=[[American Mineralogist|Am. Mineral.]]|volume=20|issue=9|pages=631–637}}</ref>