Quantitative symmetry and chirality of the molecular building blocks of quartz

Dina Yogev-Einot, David Avnir*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

We introduce the use of the concept of continuity in symmetry and chirality as a novel descriptor of the structure of the building blocks of materials. These measures are of global nature, and take into account all angles and bond lengths of the molecular building blocks. The particular example we have selected for a detailed analysis is (low) quartz. All of its main building blocks, namely the elementary SiO4 tetrahedron, the Si(OSi)4 unit, the silicon atoms tetrahedron SiSi4, and six of its internal helical structures, were investigated in detail as to their degree of chirality, tetrahedricity content, degree of distortion from C2-symmetry, and more. Specific chirality is defined and its value determined for low and high quartz and for cristobalite. The most chiral unit within quartz was found to be a four-SiO4 segment helix.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)464-472
Number of pages9
JournalChemistry of Materials
Volume15
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2003

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