Chalcopyrite copper indium disulfide (CIS) QDs have been of recent interest due to their non-toxicity. This article shows a straightforward aqueous cation exchange method to synthesise CIS particles with zinc sulfide coating.

The nature of couple substitutions of minor and trace element chemistry of expitaxial intergrowths of wurtzite and sphalerite are reported. EPMA and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analyses display significant differences in the bulk chemistries of the two epitaxial intergrowth samples studied. The sample from the Animas-Chocaya Mine complex of Bolivia is Fe-rich with mean Fe levels of 4.8 wt% for wurztite-2H and 2.3 wt% for the sphalerite component, while the sample from Merelani Hills, Tanzania, is Mn-rich with mean Mn levels in wurztite-4H of 9.1 wt% and for the sphalerite component 7.9 wt% In both samples studied the wurtzite polytype is dominant over sphalerite. LA-ICP-MS line scans across the boundaries between the wurtzite and sphalerite domains within the two samples show significant variation in the trace element chemistries both between and within the two coexisting polytypes. In the Merelani Hills sample the Cu + + Ga 3+ = 2Zn 2+ substitution holds across both the wurztite and sphalerite zones, but its levels range from around 1200 ppm of each of Cu and Ga to above 2000 ppm in the sphalerite region. The 2Ag + + Sn 4+ = 3Zn 2+ coupled substitution does not occur in the material. In the Animas sample, the Cu + + Ga 3+ = 2Zn 2+ substitution does not occur, but the 2(Ag,Cu) + + Sn 4+ = 3Zn 2+ substitution holds across the sample despite the obvious growth zoning, although there is considerable variation in the Ag/Cu ratio, with Ag dominant over Cu at the base of the sample and Cu dominant at the top. The levels of 2(Ag,Cu) + + Sn 4+ = 3Zn 2+ vary greatly across the sample from around 200 ppm to 8000 ppm Sn, but the higher values occur in the sphalerite bands.Crenshaw [7] reported the transformation occurs at 1020 • C at 1 atm H 2 S, but subsequent researchers reported different inversion temperatures [8][9][10][11]. The transition temperature is reported to be lowered significantly by substitution of Fe, Mn, and Cd [12,13]. Sphalerite and wurtzite are essentially hydrothermal minerals generally forming at much lower temperatures, e.g., in Mississippi Valley-type deposits [2]. As far back as 1934, it was proposed that stabilization of the sphalerite was linked to an excess of sulfur, and wurtzite to sulfur deficiency [14]. Pankratz and King [15] published very accurate analyses of synthetic sphalerites and wurtzites showing that the M:S ratio for sphalerite of down to 0.997 and for wurtzite up to 1.002. Scott and Barnes [16] demonstrated by hydrothermal experiments that the crystallization of ZnS in either the sphalerite form or the wurtzite form was dependent on the sulfur fugacity, ƒS 2 , with the formation of the wurtzite polytypes restricted to low ƒS 2 (~10 −20 ).The major divalent impurities in ZnS, Fe, Mn, and Cd, are said to be all more soluble in wurtzite than sphalerite and, therefore, stabilize wurtzite relative to sphalerite under a given set of conditions [12,13,16]. Lepetit et al. [17] showed that the upper solubility limit of Fe in sphalerite has a str...

Abstract.In an effort to understand the mechanism of otolith elemental incorporation, the distribution of strontium (Sr) and sulfur (S) in otoliths of Platycephalus bassensis was investigated in conjunction with otolith growth patterns. Optimisation of electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) quantitative mapping achieved both high spatial resolution (,3 mm) and two-dimensional visualisation of the fine scale Sr and S distributions in otoliths of P. bassensis with minimal damage. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) mapping confirmed that grain growth is aligned with the otolith c-axis, with grain orientation independent of both otolith elemental composition and growth patterns. Results showed a linear correlation between Sr and S distribution (R 2 ¼ 0.86), and a clear association with the otolith growth patterns determined by scanning electron microscopy. Further examination by laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) showed that incorporation of Mg and Ba appeared independent of both S distribution and the growth patterns. The results suggest that element incorporation into the otolith is linked to the organic composition in the endolymph during mineralisation, and the organic matrices may assist, in part, the uptake of Sr. Thus, these findings may have significant implications for the interpretation of otolith Sr chemistry.

Replacement reactions ('pseudomorphism') commonly occur in Nature under a large range of conditions (T 25 to >600 ˚C; P 1 to >5 kbar). Whilst mineral replacement reactions are often assumed to proceed by solid-state diffusion of the metal ions through the mineral, many actually proceed via a coupled dissolution and reprecipitation (CDR) mechanism. In such cases, a starting mineral is dissolved into a fluid and this dissolution is coupled with the precipitation of a replacement phase across the reaction front. In cases where there are close relationships between the crystal structures of the parent and newly formed minerals, the replacement can be topotactic (interface-coupled dissolution and reprecipitation). The kinetics and chemistry of the CDR route are fundamentally different from solid-state diffusion and can be exploited i) for the synthesis of materials that are often difficult to synthesise via traditional methods and ii) to obtain materials with unique properties. This review highlights recent research into the use of CDR for such synthetic challenges. Emphasis has been given to i) the use of CDR to synthesise compounds with relatively low thermal stability such as the thiospinel mineral violarite ((Ni,Fe) 3 S 4 ), ii) preliminary work into use of CDR for the production of roquesite (CuInS 2 ), a potentially important photovoltaic component and, iii) examples where the textures resulting from CDR reactions are controlled by the nature and texture of the parent phase and the reaction conditions; these being the formation of micro-porous gold and three-dimensional ordered arrays of nanozeolite of uniform size and crystallographic orientation.