Mineral Crystallinity

A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 September 2017)

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail
Guest Editor
Department of Earth, Environmental and Life (DISTAV), University of Genova, Genova, Italy
Interests: mineral crystallinity; x-ray powder diffraction; acid mine drainage processes

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We invite you to contribute a paper to this Special Issue concerning the degree of structural order in a solid. The crystallinity is, despite frequent usage of the term, not always uniformly interpreted. It is often confused with particle size distribution and structural perfection. The study of mineral crystallinity has always been limited by our technical ability to infer the arrangement of atoms in a crystalline structure. Recently, it appears that a new term should be taken into the consideration, namely the shape (habit) of the crystallites, since this greatly influences the orientation of crystallites in natural and artificial mixtures.

The Special Issue on “Mineral Crystallinity” aims to provide a broad description of the results in different fields, considering the term crystallinity in the broadest meaning of the term comprising the chemical, physical, biological, mineralogical, petrological environmental and pedological scientific aspects. For example, in material science, the degree of crystallinity of bone's mineral phase is considered a parameter which is an overall indicator of mineral crystal size and stoichiometric perfection. In environmental mineralogy, a low degree of mineral crystallinity facilitates the non-stoichiometric incorporation of foreign elements in the crystal lattice. In petrography, the degree of crystallinity of clay minerals (such as illite and chlorite) has proved a useful method for establishing the degree of very low grade metamorphism mudstones and shales.

Scientists working in a wide range of disciplines are invited to contribute to this cause.

The topics summarized under the keywords cover broad examples of the greater number of sub-topics that should be borne in mind.

Dr. Cristina Carbone
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Crystals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Crystallinity of minerals
  • Degree of structural order
  • Crystallinity index

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

6988 KiB  
Article
Crystallographic Characteristics of Hydroxylapatite in Hard Tissues of Cololabis saira
by Hejing Wang, Lei Yuan and Jiali An
Crystals 2017, 7(4), 103; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst7040103 - 05 Apr 2017
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 5192
Abstract
X-ray micro diffractometry, transmission electron microscopy, environmental scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometry and Fourier transform infrared were employed to investigate the crystallographic characteristics of the inorganic mineral existing in bones of Cololabis saira. The results show that the crystal phase [...] Read more.
X-ray micro diffractometry, transmission electron microscopy, environmental scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometry and Fourier transform infrared were employed to investigate the crystallographic characteristics of the inorganic mineral existing in bones of Cololabis saira. The results show that the crystal phase in hard tissues of Cololabis saira is hydroxylapatite (HAP). Chemical composition analysis reveals that the HAP in hard tissues lacks P and is rich in Ca. Refined lattice parameters of HAP show that a = 0.93622–0.93787 nm and c = 0.68549–0.69011 nm. The domain sizes calculated from the Scherrer equation are 18.9–20.7 nm long along the c-axis and about 6.2 nm thick perpendicular to the c-axis, and is well evidenced by TEM data. The crystallinity of HAP is poor compared with natural HAP. In situ X-ray micro diffraction patterns measured from raw hard tissue show a very strong reflection from the (002) and (004) lattice planes on the cross-section of bone and nearly no reflection from the (002) and (004) lattice planes on elongation surface of bone. Compared with the XRD pattern of standard HAP data and from the textural index R values, it indicates that the HAP in the hard tissues of Cololabis saira has a strong preferring orientation along the crystallographic c-axis. This is verified by Fourier transform infrared on the elongation surface of bone and by selected area electron diffraction of HRTEM on the section perpendicular to elongation of bone. A quantitative textural degree index DR is proposed. The crystallographic characteristics of bio-hydroxylapatites (particle size, crystallinity and preferring orientation) are designed by tissue function and controlled by organic matrix to provide a good mechanical performance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mineral Crystallinity)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Back to TopTop