Minerals are the primary constituents of Earth materials and essential components of the Solar System and the Universe. They are also produced by living organisms to form a variety of biominerals. The fundamental understanding of their structure and composition is crucial for all fields within the Earth & Environmental Sciences. This course aims to provide knowledge on modern Mineralogy-Crystallography needed principally in Geology, and particularly in Petrology/Geochemistry/Ore & Economic Geology. Moreover, to introduce the students to macroscopic, microscopic, analytical, thermal, and X-ray techniques applied in minerals research.
Introduction to Mineralogy and Materials Science; historical aspects; principles of Crystallography and crystal chemistry; crystalline and amorphous solid materials; unit cell and crystal lattice; geometrical/morphological Crystallography (symmetry, crystal systems, Miller indices, crystallographic symbols, enantiomorphism/chirality, stereographic projection); Quasicrystals and related minerals and natural phases; intergrowth and twinning; crystal and mineral nucleation & growth (crystallization), crystal growth inhibition; formation of minerals and growth from melt/magma & hydrothermal solutions, effect of pressure and metamorphic & deep minerals, minerals precipitating in solutions, biominerals; epitaxy, topotaxy, exsolution, phase diagrams; introduction to microscopic techniques (optical microscopy, SEM, TEM, AFM); basic principles of instrumental analysis in mineralogy (X-rays, e-, p+, Laser, MS, ion-beams); optical Crystallography-Mineralogy (polarizing/petrographic microscope, optical properties of minerals, refractive index, isotropic/anisotropic, pleochroism, optical axis, uniaxial/biaxial, birefringence/interference color); introduction to Solid-State Chemistry and structural Crystallography-Mineralogy (crystal structure, defects/impurities & color, solid solutions/isomorphism, allotropy, polymorphism, polytypism); X-rays and characterization of materials and minerals by means of powder X-ray diffraction (Bragg's law, X-ray diffraction patterns, unit cell constants); X-ray diffraction using Synchrotron radiation and portable & remote equipments; Thermal behaviour of minerals; thermal analyses (TGA, DTA, DSC); introduction to selective -free- software (WinXMorph, Crystal & KrystalShaper, Kristall2000, VESTA , PowDLL, QualX2).