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Phase transitions (phase changes) that help describe polymorphism include polymorphic transitions as well as melting and vaporization transitions. According to IUPAC, a polymorphic transition is "A reversible transition of a solid crystalline phase at a certain temperature and pressure (the inversion point) to another phase of the same chemical composition with a different crystal structure."
Polymorphism is the ability of a solid to exist in more than one crystal form. For example, water ice is ordinarily found in the hexagonal form Ice I h, but can also exist as the cubic Ice I c, the rhombohedral ice II, and many other forms. The different polymorphs are usually called different phases.
An example of a botanical genetic polymorphism is heterostyly, in which flowers occur in different forms with different arrangements of the pistils and the stamens. The system is called heteromorphic self-incompatibility , and the general 'strategy' of stamens separated from pistils is known as herkogamy .
It forms an important part of current academic research in the fields of membrane biophysics (polymorphism), biochemistry (biological impact) and organic chemistry (synthesis). Determination of the topology of a lipid system is possible by a number of methods, the most reliable of which is x-ray diffraction. This uses a beam of x-rays that are ...
This dualism is an example of polymorphism. In each form, the coordination geometry at Zn and S is tetrahedral. The more stable cubic form is known also as zinc blende or sphalerite. The hexagonal form is known as the mineral wurtzite, although it also can be produced synthetically. [2]
The Gibbs phase rule states that under most thermodynamic conditions (fixed temperature, pressure, chemical potential, and other intensive thermodynamic properties), for each chemical species, only one phase is thermodynamically stable (i.e. have the lowest Gibbs free energy per volume), except on certain boundaries, such as the coexistence of ice and water right at the freezing point.
Silica pseudomorph after gypsum crystals and silicified serpulid polychaete tubes Pseudomorph of goethite after pyrite. In mineralogy, a pseudomorph is a mineral or mineral compound that appears in an atypical form (crystal system), resulting from a substitution process in which the appearance and dimensions remain constant, but the original mineral is replaced by another due to alteration, or ...
It is analogous to the polymorphism of crystalline materials. Many amorphous substances can exist with different amorphous characteristics (e.g. polymers). However, polyamorphism requires two distinct amorphous states with a clear, discontinuous (first-order) phase transition between them.