The hydroxyl orientations in the 2H2 polytype of amesite, Mg2Al(SiAl)O5(OH)4, have been determined by minimizing the electrostatic potential energy as a function of OH orientation. The angles, ρ, between the hydroxyls and (001) vary between 81.5 and 88.8°. All surface hydroxyls form hydrogen bonds with oxygens of the adjacent layer. The OHs tend to tilt away from the higher charged A1VI ions, and the spread in ρ values is due to variations in the positions of the receptor oxygens. The inner hydroxyls noticeably weaken the interlayer bonding. The substitution of Al in both T and M sites creates a dipolar layer charge and the resulting attraction between layers forms an important part of the interlayer bonding. The 2H2 polytype of amesite has substantial interlayer bonding even with all surface hydroxyls replaced by fluorine. This is not true for a composition of Mg3Si2O5(OH)4 where a similar F for OH substitution destroys all interlayer bonding as in kaolinite.

The electrostatic lattice energy of polar phyllosilicates can be calculated when a correction term Ecorr equal to -2πμ2/V is taken into account, where μ is the dipole moment of a slice d(001) and V is the molecular volume. The interlayer bonding energy can be obtained by Giese's method, if the energy of separation of the layers over a distance A is plotted againts 1/[d(001) + Δ]. Thus, for a polar chlorite the interlayer bonding energy is 69.8 kJ/unit cell. Using the Madelung method, the interlayer bonding energy of slices of kaolinite having a thickness of d(001) is 84 kJ/mole. Similarly the interlayer bonding energy of slices having a thickness d(020) is 2520 kJ/mole. To avoid the instability of the outer slices of the crystal caused by the cooperating dipole moments of all slices, the hypothesis was made that the atoms have in reality reduced charges and that the charge reduction is such that the dipole moment becomes zero. The adopted charges lower the interlayer bonding energy to as little as 14 kJ/mole. The interlayer interaction of slices of fluorkaolinite with thickness d(001) is repulsive. Crystals of a polar chlorite must be bounded either by incomplete hydroxide layers or by layers onto which charge-compensating anions are adsorbed. Polarity makes cleavage in chlorite more difficult.