Comparing The Crystal Structures And Crystal Chemistry Of Fepo4 And Fepo4

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Compare and contrast the crystal structures and crystal chemistry of quartz, α-FePO4 and β-FePO4. Quartz (SiO2) is the second most abundant mineral on Earth and is of significant uses in both material and Earth sciences. Quartz crystals exist in polymorphs, which mean that the crystal structure of quartz will change depending on the temperature and pressure of the environment that the crystal is in. The crystal will be in its alpha-crystal form when the surrounding temperature and pressure is low. However, when exposed to intense temperature and pressure, it will convert to its beta-crystal form. This paper aims to look at the transition phase of the two different crystal structures using FePO4, a homeotype of quartz. Both quartz and FePO4 …show more content…

Polymorphism refers to the ability of the crystal to exist in different lattice structure depending on the environmental conditions. In this case, FePO4 displays two kinds of lattice structure depending on the temperature and pressure of the environment. As mentioned previously, FePO4 crystals exist in alpha-structure in low temperature and pressure and changes to beta-structure in high temperature and pressure. The temperature at which the FePO4 crystals change phase is around 980K. In the alpha structure, the tetrahedral is arranged such that the structure of the cell is trigonal and has a space group of P3221. The changes in the two symmetrically independent intertetrahedral Fe-O-P bridging angle and the correlated tilt angles is the main factor of the thermal expansion of the alpha structure. The volume and cell parameters of the alpha structure increases non-linearly as a function of temperature. The thermal expansion coefficient is found to be α (K-1) = 2.924 x 10-5 + 2.920 x 10-10 (T-300)2. As the temperature increase, the bond angles and the bond distance changes significantly especially as it increases towards the 980k where the structure will change from alpha to beta. As the temperature increase, the crystal structures realign to form the beta structure. The tetrahedral shifts such that the structure changes from trigonal to hexagonal and has a space group of p6222. It must be noted that there was no breaking of bonds and the atoms are still surrounded by the same neighbouring atoms. There is lesser symmetry in the beta structure as compared to the alpha structure. In addition, as the temperature rise, the bond distance between Fe and O in the tetrahedral actually increases, which corresponds to that of alpha quartz. This non-physical behaviour is most probably due to the increase in enthalpy of the atoms at high temperature, resulting in high amplitude and energetic vibrations. A fall in the time-averaged bond distance

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