First principles calculation of the stability of iron bearing carbonates at high pressure conditions

Abstract

Carbonate minerals such as ferromagnesite (Mg, Fe) CO3 are suggested to be a possible major deep-carbon host in the lower mantle, because ferromagnesite is possibly stabilized by Fe spin crossover under pressure. However, the behavior of Fe-bearing carbonates under lower mantle pressure conditions has not been suitably examined thus far. Thus, in this study, we investigate the high-pressure stability of ferromagnesite and possible high-pressure structures with the chemical composition of (Mg0.833Fe0.167) CO3 via first principles calculation using internally consistent local density approximation with Hubbard parameter (LDA+U) method, which can more accurately account for the electronic state of Fe than the LDA and generalized gradient approximation (GGA) approaches. The enthalpy values obtained via our calculations suggest that (Mg0.833Fe0.167) CO3 undergoes phase transition from the R3c structure (high spin) to the P1 (high spin) at 50 GPa, and to C2/m (high-spin) structure above 80 GPa, under static 0 K conditions. Therefore, no spin transitions in these carbonate minerals is expected under the lower mantle pressure conditions.