Modularity and Twinning in Mineral Crystal Structures

• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Basel, Switzerland MDPI - Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2021
• Subjects: aluminophosphates; anorthite; antiferromagnets; argyrodite-type compounds; borophosphates; c-type reflections; calcite; chemical ordering; DFT; Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning; electron diffraction; emerging properties; frustrated magnets; glendonite; heteropolyhedral framework; hydrothermal synthesis; kagomé lattice; layered silicates; luminescence properties; minerals; modular approach; modular structures; modularity; n/a; OD structures; OD theory; ordering; order–disorder approach; Pamierite; perovskite; piezoelectricity in minerals; polymorphism; polysomes (series); polytypism; RE-silicate-germanate; Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects; Research and information: general; spryite; structure prediction; superstructure; surface relaxations; synthetic analogues of minerals; TEM; tennantite; tetrahedral framework; tetrahedrite; topology; topology-symmetry analysis; transition metal phosphates; twin boundary; twin wall; twinning; ultra-low temperature; wollastonite chain; X-ray diffraction
• ISBN: 9783036519166; 3036519173; 3036519165; 9783036519173
• DOI: 10.3390/books978-3-0365-1916-6

The articles published in this Special Issue reprint offer a sound update of research fields where the concepts of modular crystallography are important and provide unique keys to understand and to solve problems of structural crystallography. Polytypism, polysomatism, and twinning are fertile fields of research, and their basic principles—often coupled with the OD (order-disorder) theory—are powerful tools to solve and classify related crystal structures. Research on twinning and its consequences on structure and properties of crystalline materials is cutting-edge, e.g., dealing with relations between twin walls and piezoelectricity.