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So, whenever the conditions are favorable, crystal formation results from simply cooling the solution. Here cooling is a relative term: austenite crystals in a steel form well above 1000 °C. An example of this crystallization process is the production of Glauber's salt, a crystalline form of sodium sulfate.
The above mechanism considered crystallization from the melt, which is important for injection molding of plastic components. Another type of crystallization occurs upon extrusion used in making fibers and films. In this process, the polymer is forced through, e.g., a nozzle that creates tensile stress which partially aligns its molecules. Such ...
On the other hand, a badly scratched container will result in many lines of small crystals. To achieve a moderate number of medium-sized crystals, a container which has a few scratches works best. Likewise, adding small previously made crystals, or seed crystals, to a crystal growing project will provide nucleating sites to the solution.
Developing protein crystals is a difficult process influenced by many factors, including pH, temperature, ionic strength in the crystallization solution, and even gravity. [3] Once formed, these crystals can be used in structural biology to study the molecular structure of the protein, particularly for various industrial or medical purposes.
Crystallography is used by materials scientists to characterize different materials. In single crystals, the effects of the crystalline arrangement of atoms is often easy to see macroscopically because the natural shapes of crystals reflect the atomic structure. In addition, physical properties are often controlled by crystalline defects.
In some compositions, at high pressures without water crystallization of enstatite is favored, but in the presence of water at high pressures, olivine is favored. [12] Granitic magmas provide additional examples of how melts of generally similar composition and temperature, but at different pressure, may crystallize different minerals.
In geochemistry, mineral crystallinity plays a pivotal role in regulating water-rock interactions, particularly during the early stages of mineral crystallization. For example, in the case of goethite, dissolved lithium can be taken up by poorly crystallized goethite, whereas little sorption occurs in well-crystallized goethite. [ 1 ]
Recrystallization to coarser crystals reduces the surface area and so minimizes the surface energy. [ 18 ] Although grain coarsening is a common result of metamorphism, rock that is intensely deformed may eliminate strain energy by recrystallizing as a fine-grained rock called mylonite .