Structural complexity and crystallization: the Ostwald sequence of phases in the Cu₂(OH)₃Cl system (botallackite–atacamite–clinoatacamite)

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Sergey V. Krivovichev ; Frank C. Hawthorne ; Peter A. Williams
• 关键词：Structural complexity ; Crystallization ; Atacamite ; Botallackite ; Clinoatacamite ; Crystal structure ; Mineral ; Ostwald step rule ; Metastability
• 刊名：Structural Chemistry
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：February 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：28
• 期：1
• 页码：153-159
• 全文大小：
• 刊物类别：Chemistry and Materials Science
• 刊物主题：Computer Applications in Chemistry; Physical Chemistry; Theoretical and Computational Chemistry;
• 出版者：Springer US
• ISSN：1572-9001
• 卷排序：28

文摘

Analysis of the evolution of structural complexity of the Cu₂(OH)₃Cl polymorphs along the botallackite–atacamite–clinoatacamite Ostwald cascade of phases from the viewpoint of Shannon information-based complexity parameters shows that structural information increases during the transition from less stable to more stable phases. Among the three polymorphs, botallackite is the simplest, atacamite is intermediate, and clinoatacamite is the most complex. This agrees well with the Goldsmith’s simplexity rule and shows that complexity is a physically important parameter that characterizes crystallization in complex chemical systems. Consideration of the crystal structures of the Cu₂(OH)₃Cl polymorphs in terms of their Cu–Cl arrays shows that transformation between the phases involves breaking and formation of chemical bonds and therefore has a reconstructive character.