Thanks to visit codestin.com
Credit goes to www.scribd.com

0% found this document useful (0 votes)
66 views11 pages

Wa0004

This document discusses crystal forms and symmetry. It begins by explaining that when a crystal rotates 360 degrees and appears the same, it is noted with a filled circle. Rotational axes can be on faces, edges, or points of a crystal. Another type of axis is rotary inversion, where a crystal appears in the original position after a 90 degree rotation and wrist turn. There are 32 classes of symmetry that crystals can be divided into depending on their symmetry elements. Within each class, certain forms can occur together based on their symmetry, but not forms from different classes. The document then discusses general forms that repeat and close on themselves versus open forms, and provides lists and descriptions of the different forms that can occur in the various crystal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
0% found this document useful (0 votes)
66 views11 pages

Wa0004

This document discusses crystal forms and symmetry. It begins by explaining that when a crystal rotates 360 degrees and appears the same, it is noted with a filled circle. Rotational axes can be on faces, edges, or points of a crystal. Another type of axis is rotary inversion, where a crystal appears in the original position after a 90 degree rotation and wrist turn. There are 32 classes of symmetry that crystals can be divided into depending on their symmetry elements. Within each class, certain forms can occur together based on their symmetry, but not forms from different classes. The document then discusses general forms that repeat and close on themselves versus open forms, and provides lists and descriptions of the different forms that can occur in the various crystal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 11

When rotation repeats form every 360 degrees, then we use a filled

circle as notation. This means NO SYMMETRY!!


Note that rotational axes may be on the plane of the face, on the edge
of where two faces meet, or on the point of conjunction of three or
more faces. On a complete crystal form, the axis must pass through the
center of the crystal and exit at the equivalent site on the opposite side
of the crystal as it entered.
Another type of rotational axis is
known as the AXES OF ROTARY
INVERSION.
First, let's consider a crystal as shown in the Figure to the right. Use a piece of "2 by 2"
board and make this crystal form by cutting off the ends so the wood block looks like
the drawing.
Hold the block in your left hand with your thumb on the top and in the center of the 2-
face edge join (long axis) and your index finger on the same join on the underside.
Your palm will be toward your body.
Align your two fingers so that you are looking straight down on your thumb and can
not see end of your index finger. The top of the block will appear as 2 equal-sized
faces, sloping away from you.
If you rotate the block 180 degrees, the faces will appear back in the same position (2-
fold axis of rotation),
but here's the tricky part -- rotate the specimen 90 degrees and then turn your wrist
where your index finger is on top (easiest done by turning your wrist
counterclockwise).
You will see that the block's faces appear in the original position. You have discovered
an axis of rotary inversion!
These axes can also be referred to as rotary reflection axes or rotoinversion axes.
There may be 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, and 6-fold rotary inversion axes present in natural crystal
forms, depending upon the crystal system we are discussing.
CLASSES OF SYMMETRY
Depending upon what elements of symmetry are present, all crystals may be divided into 32
distinct groups called CLASSES OF SYMMETRY.
 Remember, we concern ourselves with the symmetry elements we learned above, not the
malformed crystal shapes of most minerals. Only forms which belong to the same class can
occur in combination together in nature.
 We cannot find a cube face on a hexagonal crystal. Likewise, we will never discover the
rhombic dipyramid termination of a hexagonal crystal on a tetragonal crystal.
So our laws, rules, and symmetry elements previously discussed prevent chaos in our
beautifully symmetrical world of crystallography.
Certainly, when dealing with real crystals, distortion problems can arise!
Consider capillary pyrite. Here you have a cubic crystal which, due to a growth phenomenon,
has one axis nearing infinity in length in relation to the other two. But this is caused by special
conditions during growth, not the crystallography.
CRYSTAL FORMS AND HABIT
CRYSTAL FORMS
 the term "form" is loosely used by many people to indicate outward appearance.
However, we must "tighten up" our definition when discussing crystallography.
CRYSTAL HABIT is the correct term to indicate outward appearance.
Habit, when applied to natural crystals and minerals, includes such descriptive terms as tabular,
equidimensional, acicular, massive, reniform, drusy, and encrusting.
In crystallography, we use "form" with a more restricted meaning.
 A FORM is a group of crystal faces, all having the same relationship to the elements of symmetry of a given
crystal system.
 These crystal faces display the same physical and chemical properties because the ATOMIC
ARRANGEMENT (internal geometrical relationships) of the atoms composing them is the SAME.
The relationship between form and the elements of symmetry is an important one to grasp, because no
matter how distorted a natural crystal may be, certain key elements will be recognizable to help the student
discern what form or forms are present.
 The term general form has specific meaning in crystallography. In each crystal class, there is a form in
which the faces intersect each crytallographic axes at different lengths. This is the general form {hkl} and is
the name for each of the 32 classes (hexoctahedral class of the isometric system, for example).
All other forms are called special forms.
A complex growth history may affect the shape but the general form is constant.
There are TWO GENERAL TYPES OF FORMS: those that by repetition close on
themselves creating a complete form (termed closed) and those that do not
(termed open).
Pyrite is a common mineral which often exhibits several forms
There are 15 forms in the isometric (cubic) on a single crystal.
system. All of them are closed forms.  One form is usually dominant, presenting the largest faces on
Isometric Crystal Forms
the crystal. Peruvian pyrite commonly has cubic, octahedral,
Number Number
and dodecahedral forms on a single crystal; sometimes even
Name of Faces Name of Faces
pyritohedral and diploid faces may be present.
(1) Cube 6 9)Tristetrahedron 12
 Any of these individual forms may be the dominant one.
Crystals with the same forms present, but with different
(2) Octahedron 8 (10) Hextetrahedron 24 dominant forms will each appear very different (fig. 2.4).
 As we explore each crystal system, there will be illustrations
(3) Dodecahedron 12 (11) Deltoid dodecahedron 24
displaying most of the ideal forms and some drawings
(4) Tetrahexahedron 24 (12) Gyroid 24 showing combinations of forms often exhibited by individual
mineral crystals.
(5) Trapezohedron 24 (13) Pyritohedron 12

(6) Trisoctahedron 24 (14) Diploid 24

(7) Hexoctahedron 48 (15) Tetartoid 12

(8) Tetrahedron 4
There are 32 (some say 33) forms in the nonisometric (noncubic) crystal systems
Non-Isometric Crystal Forms
Number Number
Name of Faces Name of Faces (26) Rhombic pyramid 4 (42) Hexagonal trapezohedron 12

(16) Pedion* 1 (32) Dihexagonal pyramid 12


(27) Trigonal pyramid 3 (43)Tetragonal scalenohedron 8

(17) Pinacoid** 2 (33) Rhombic dipyramid 8


(28)Ditrigonal pyramid 6 (44) Hexagonal scalenohedron 12
(18) Dome or Sphenoid 2 (34) Trigonal dipyramid 6
(29) Tetragonal pyramid 4 (45) Rhombohedron 6
(19) Rhombic prism 4 (35) Ditrigonal dipyramid 12

(30) Ditetragonal pyramid 8 (46) Rhombic disphenoid 4


(20) Trigonal prism 3 (36) Tetragonal dipyramid 8

(21) Ditrigonal prism 6 (37) Ditetragonal dipyramid 16 (31) Hexagonal pyramid 6 (47) Tetragonal disphenoid 4
*Pedion may appear in several crystal systems
(22) Tetragonal prism 4 (38) Hexagonal dipyramid 12
**Pinacoid drawing displays 3 pairs of pinacoid faces from the Orthorhombic system.
Pinacoids appear in several crystal systems.
(23) Ditetragonal prism 8 (39) Dihexagonal dipyramid 24

(24) Hexagonal prism 6 (40) Trigonal trapezohedron 6


It is important to note that these are simply the possible
(25) Dihexagonal prism 12 (41) Tetragonal trapezohedron 8 INDIVIDUAL FORMS, not the combinations of forms seen on
a single natural crystal.
(26) Rhombic pyramid 4 (42) Hexagonal trapezohedron 12

(27) Trigonal pyramid 3 (43)Tetragonal scalenohedron 8


Introduction to Crystallography and Mineral Crystal
Systems
Tutor: Bunting K Williams
Contact Numbers: (088967067/076688427)
Email: [email protected]

MILLER INDICES
The Miller indices of a direction are the components of a vector (not reciprocals) that starts from the origin, along the direction, reduced to the smallest
integer set.

Steps:
1. Draw a line from the origin, parallel to the direction, extending it until it hits a cell edge or face.
2. Read off the coordinates of the point of intersection.
3. Get rid of any fraction or common factor by multiplying all the components by the same constant

The Miller indices of a direction are always written in square brackets: [100]. They are reduced to the smallest integer. As with planes, there are several
directions of the 100-type.

The complete family is described by putting the indices in angled brackets as shown below:
<100> = [100], [010], [001], [Ῑ00], [0Ῑ0], [00Ῑ]
Miller indices of directions. Always translate
the direction so that it starts from the origin.
Consider a cubic unit cell
with all directions equal
to one (1) i.e. a=b=c=1
For the (100) plane also referred to as the one-
zero-zero plane, the following calculations can be
made:
1. We find the intercepts:
On x-axis: intercept is 1
On y-axis: intercept is œ
On z-axis: intercept is œ

NB: infinity means parallel to a given axis


2. We take reciprocals of the intercepts
So 1/1 = 1 =h
and, 1/œ = 0 =k
and, 1/œ = 0 =l

So we have the Miller indices of the plane


represented by (h,k,l) resulting in (1,0,0) plane
Example
Suppose we have a plane represented by the following
coordinates (1/3,0,0), (0,2/3,0) and (0,0,1)
Soln
Intercept on x-axis = 1/3
Intercept on y-axis = 2/3
Intercept on z-axis = 1

Taking reciprocals, we have


h=3
k = 3/2
l=1

We then multiply throughout by 2 to have integers (Miller


indices are integers)
Hence,
h=6
k=3
l=2
Hence the coordinates above represent the (6,3,2) palne.
Miller indices used to
determine interplanar
spacing between parallel
planes
d spacing = a/ √h² + k² + l²
If crystal structure whose side of the cube is 0.361,
then the dspacing for the (220) plane is obtained by
dspacing = a/ √h² + k² + l²
= 0.361/ √2² + 2² + 0²
= 0.128nm

You might also like