Abstract
LONDON. Royal Society, Mar. 17.-W. L. Bragg and J. West: The structure of certain silicates. In a number of compounds the oxygen atoms are arranged in one of the forms of closest packing, the atoms of metal or silicon being inserted into this oxygen assemblage and causing only a slight distortion of its ideal arrangement. Typical examples are the compounds A12O3, BeAl2O4, MgAl2O4, MgSiO4, MgCaSiO4, (MgOH)2Mg3 (SiO4),, Al2SiO5 (kyanite). In the diffraction of X-rays by these crystals, which are often characterised by low symmetry and large unit cell, the simple pattern produced by the oxygen arrangement is evident, superimposed upon the pattern produced by the crystal as a whole. Other silicates are based upon more complicated arrangements of oxygen atoms, but these atoms appear in all cases to play a highly important part in determining the structure.
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Societies and Academies. Nature 119, 477–479 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/119477b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/119477b0