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clay minerals

In clay mineral: General features
…called trioctahedral, and the latter dioctahedral. If all the anion groups are hydroxyl ions in the compositions of octahedral sheets, the resulting sheets may be expressed by M²⁺(OH)₂ and M³⁺(OH)₃, respectively. Such sheets, called hydroxide sheets, occur singly, alternating with silicate layers in some clay minerals. Brucite, Mg(OH)₂, and gibbsite,…
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single crystal

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single crystal

crystallography

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single crystal, any solid object in which an orderly three-dimensional arrangement of the atoms, ions, or molecules is repeated throughout the entire volume. Certain minerals, such as quartz and the gemstones, often occur as single crystals; synthetic single crystals, especially silicon and gallium arsenide, are used in solid-state electronic devices such as integrated circuits and light-emitting diodes (LEDs).

In the preparation of synthetic single crystals, special techniques are employed to control the deposition of material upon one nucleus (see nucleation), which often is a small single crystal of the substance obtained from a previous preparation.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.

dioctahedral structure

Learn about this topic in these articles:

clay minerals

single crystal