Synthetic andalusite crystals: morphology and growth features

Rapid, high yield, solution-mediated transformation of polycrystalline selenium powder into single-crystal nanowiresElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: histogram of diameter distribution of as-prepared single-crystalline trigonal selenium nanowires. See http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/cc/b3/b303755j/

“…21 Growth of selenium single crystals along the c-axis, that is growth of the (100) face, is classified as the adhesive growth and crystal growth occurring perpendicular to c-axis is the layer-by-layer growth (accretion on the (001) face). 24 This method opens up a convenient and effective route to selenium single crystal nanowires in high yield.…”

Electron paramagnetic resonance and the thermoluminescence emission mechanism of the 280°C peak in natural andalusite crystal

“…Andalusite is an aluminum silicate mineral belonging to the class of ortho-silicates, characterized by the presence of individual tetrahedral SiO 4 4 À groups. Its chemical formula is variously written as Al 2 O 3 Á SiO 2 , Al 2 SiO 5 or (AlO)AlSiO 4 .…”

“…Its chemical formula is variously written as Al 2 O 3 Á SiO 2 , Al 2 SiO 5 or (AlO)AlSiO 4 . It is one of the three polymorphs of this compound, the other two being the triclinic kyanite and the orthorhombic sillimanite.…”

“…These crystals present pleochroism [2,3] and commonly appear in metamorphic pelitic sediments. It is generally a crystal available only as a mineral although some very small specimens have been grown in the laboratory [4]. A variety of experimental studies have been devoted to the determination of the crystal structure [5][6][7], nuclear magnetic resonance [8,9], EPR [10,11], optical absorption [2,12,13] and other properties of this mineral [14,15].…”