Planar faults

However, it is not yet clear why the ener es of the SISF and the twin boundary increase with increasing A1 concentration. To find a clue to the problem, it would be needed to make out the effects of the short-range ordering of A1 atoms in excess of the stoichiometric composition of the HAl phase on the energies of planar faults and the stmcture of dislocation cores in the Al-rich HAl phase. 

Figure 3.20 Planar defects in solids (a) boundaries between slightly misaligned regions or domains b) stacking mistakes in solids built of layers, such as the micas or clays (c) ordered planar faults assimilated into a crystal to give a new structure and unit cell (shaded).

Treacy, M.M.J., Newsam, J.M., and Deem, M.W. (1991) A general recursion method for calculating diffracted intensities from crystals containing planar faults. Proc. R. Soc. Lond., A443, 499-520. 

Zeolitic materials have been prominent amongst those so far studied by high resolution powder diffraction using synchrotron X-rays [36]. High definition synchrotron PXD data has been helpful in a number of framework structure determinations and has facilitated studies of planar faulting (see below). Successful Rietveld refinements of the framework structures of zeolite ZSM-11 [37, 38] and silica-ZSM-12 [39], and of the complete structures of zeolite Y containing cadmium sulfide [40] and cadmium selenide [41] clusters have been described. 

The lattice energy of a crystal of known structure (atomic positions) is thus calculated by compiling all possible distances between pairs of atoms in different molecules. The method of atom-atom potentials has been employed to investigate phenomena pertaining to static as well as dynamic lattices and the subject has been reviewed by Kitaigorodsky (1973) as well as by Ramdas Thomas (1980). Typical of the problems that have been investigated by this method are defects and planar faults, phase transitions and molecular rotation in crystals. 

Stacking faults are characterised by a fault plane and a fault displacement vector. On one side of the fault plane, the atoms that are located fer from the fault are displaced by a vector R in relation to the positions they would occupy in the absence of the fault. Strain fields emanating from any reconstructive bonding that is present near the fault plane will lead to additional displacements for atoms near the fault plane. Thus, the specification of R determines the positions of the atoms that are sufficiently distant so that the strain field generated by the fault is below some specified tolerance. For a planar fault, R may be determined experimentally by analysis of the diffraction contrast obtained with different diffraction vectors g. The positions of atoms near the fault may be determined theoretically by total energy minimisation calculations. Knowledge of these positions is essential to determine the electronic structure of the fault. 

FIGURE 4 Schematic representation of a possible structure for a (1010) stacking mismatch boundary in GaN. The Ga and N atoms at the boundary (indicated by the dashed line) are threefold coordinated man sp2 configuration. The N 2p-orbitals give rise to a two-dimensional band of dangling bond states inside the bandgap [14]. This planar fault may also be specified by a displacement... 

Planar faults are common in zeolites and related crystalline microporous solids. These can influence the sorptive characteristics in any one of several ways (i) they can have little influence on the overall accessibility or capacity, but alter the pore architecture, accessibility or difiusional constraints (ii) they can reduce the limiting dimensions of pore windows while leaving the tot pore volume unaffected (iii) they can block channels. Pores or pore access can also be blocked by detrital material such as alumina extracted from the framework, coke or sintered metal catalyst particles, immobile organic molecules or non-framework cations in blocking positions. 

The Crystal Chemistry of some Systems containing Planar Faults... 

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