Crystal Chem Crystallography: - Chemistry Behind Minerals and How They Are Assembled

The document discusses symmetry in crystals and crystallography. It introduces: 1) The 13 symmetry operators that define the order of atoms in crystals, including mirror planes, rotation axes, inversion, and rotoinversion. 2) How combinations of the symmetry operators form 32 point groups divided among the 6 crystal systems. 3) How crystal morphology and growth are influenced by factors like atomic density and environment along crystal faces. Miller indices are used to index and track crystal faces based on their orientations and intercepts with crystal axes.

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Arkodip Mandal

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Crystal Chem Crystallography: - Chemistry Behind Minerals and How They Are Assembled

Uploaded by

Arkodip Mandal

Available Formats

Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

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Crystal Chem  Crystallography

• Chemistry behind minerals and how they are

assembled
– Bonding properties and ideas governing how
atoms go together
– Mineral assembly – precipitation/ crystallization
and defects from that
• Now we will start to look at how to look at,
and work with, the repeatable structures
which define minerals.
– This describes how the mineral is assembled on
a larger scale
Symmetry
Symmetry Introduction
• Symmetry defines the order resulting from how
atoms are arranged and oriented in a crystal
• Study the 2-D and 3-D order of minerals
• Do this by defining symmetry operators (there are
13 total)  actions which result in no change to the
order of atoms in the crystal structure
• Combining different operators gives point groups –
which are geometrically unique units.
• Every crystal falls into some point group, which are
segregated into 6 major crystal systems
2-D Symmetry Operators
• Mirror Planes (m) – reflection along a plane

A line denotes
mirror planes
2-D Symmetry Operators
• Rotation Axes (1, 2, 3, 4, or 6) – rotation of 360,
180, 120, 90, or 60º around a rotation axis yields
no change in orientation/arrangement

2-fold

3-fold

4-fold

6-fold
2-D Point groups
• All possible combinations of the 5 symmetry
operators: m, 2, 3, 4, 6, then combinations
of the rotational operators and a mirror yield
2mm, 3m, 4mm, 6mm
• Mathematical maximum of 10 combinations

4mm
3-D Symmetry Operators
• Mirror Planes (m) – reflection along any
plane in 3-D space
3-D Symmetry Operators
• Rotation Axes (1, 2, 3, 4, or 6 a.k.a. A1, A2, A3,
A4, A6) – rotation of 360, 180, 120, 90, or 60º
around a rotation axis through any angle yields
no change in orientation/arrangement
3-D Symmetry Operators
• Inversion (i) – symmetry with respect to a
point, called an inversion center

1
1
3-D Symmetry Operators
• Rotoinversion (1, 2, 3, 4, 6 a.k.a. A1, A2, A3,
A4, A6) – combination of rotation and
inversion. Called bar-1, bar-2, etc.
• 1,2,6 equivalent to other functions
3-D Symmetry