What is Crystallography?

Crystallography Defined

What is crystallography?

Crystallography is concerned with the laws governing the crystalline state of solid materials, with the arrangement of atoms in crystals, and with their physical and chemical properties, their synthesis and their growth. (Borchardt-Ott, 2011)

Mineralogists study crystallography because they study minerals, which are, by definition, naturally occurring crystalline materials. Many gemstones are also minerals, so gemologists have an interest in crystallography, too.

The Development of Crystallography

People have been interested in crystals for millennia, but here we will discuss the scientific study of crystalline materials and their properties.

Morphology

Crystallography began as the study and description of the external appearances of crystals. This is known as morphology. Researchers measured the angles between the faces of crystals and created organized principles about crystal shapes based on their findings.

A six-cornered snowflake inspired the German astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) to consider the material’s inner structure, which always resulted in six-rayed snowflakes. He compared the arrangement of particles within matter to how vendors stack fruits and