Topic Collection: Mineralogical Crystallography

Dear Colleagues,

Crystallography and mineralogy have gone hand in hand since ancient times, and the relevance of such a tandem has not been lost today. Almost all modern natural scientific fields cannot progress without crystallographic research. Further, most material science achievements are rooted in mineralogy; this could include the use of natural materials as a starting reagent or the production of mineral to create high-tech materials. Today, just over 6,000 mineral species have been discovered, and it is of interest that not all of them, despite their unique or promising properties, were obtained in laboratory conditions. This means that our scientific future will be inextricably linked with both the fields of mineralogy and crystallography. Emphasizing the general importance of mineralogy and crystallography in modern human life, the United Nations and UNESCO designated 2014 as the International Year of Crystallography, celebrating the centenary of the discovery of X-ray diffraction, and 2022 as the Year of Mineralogy, marking the bicentennial of the death of René Just Haüy (born 1743), who is considered to be one of the founders of crystallography and mineralogy in the modern world, celebrating the publication of his Traité de minéralogy and Traité de cristallographie in 1822.The mineralogical crystallography topic was preceded by three Special Issue volumes (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/crystals/special_issues/mineralogical_crystallography, https://www.mdpi.com/journal/crystals/special_issues/mineralogical_crystallography_ii, and https://www.mdpi.com/journal/crystals/special_issues/135A2JHO76), which featured important surveys covering topics such as the following: the discovery of new mineral species; the crystal chemistry of minerals and their synthetic analogs; the behavior of minerals at non-ambient conditions; gemology; natural-based cement materials; biomineralogy; and crystal growth techniques. All three Special Issues appeared to be very fruitful, so these online issues have also been published as printed books (https://www.mdpi.com/books/reprint/2952-mineralogical-crystallography, https://www.mdpi.com/books/reprint/6452-mineralogical-crystallography-volume-ii, and the third volume’s book is in production). This tendency demonstrates an unflagging interest in the crystallography of natural phases and mineral-like synthetic compounds. We hope that this continuation will keep the bar at the same significant height, and that this new set of reviews and articles will again arouse genuine interest among readers and, perhaps, push them to conduct their own research. So, we are very pleased to announce that the “Mineralogical Crystallography” topic collection is now open to manuscript submissions.

We invite you to participate in this topic collection and to contribute your research results in the fields of new mineral species discovery, structural studies of minerals and related synthetic materials, crystal chemical overviews of various mineral groups, the evolution of mineral species and their crystal structures, and descriptions of growth processes and the properties of the natural crystalline compounds.

Dr. Vladislav V. Gurzhiy
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 collection 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 2100 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.

• minerals
• crystallography
• crystal chemistry
• X-ray diffraction
• crystal structures
• crystal growth
• mineral evolution