Growth of Quartz and Metastable Tridymite in a Flux Solution

Abstract

Although hexagonal prismatic quartz crystals were obtained in the flux system CaO-Na₂O-B₂O₃,-Li₂O-V₂O₅, another flux in the system CaO-MgO-Li₂O-V₂O₅ have been prepared for experiments at 780-900℃. In this flux, two different crystals have been obtained dependent on experimental conditions. One crystal is quartz in a hexagonal bipyramid form, characteristic to high-quartz. The other crystal is tridymite in a hexagonal platy form. Tridymite crystals have been observed even in the experiment cooled down to 800℃, where quartz is stable and tridymite is metastable.