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Published in:
2006 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
Crystal Structures of Silica and Metal Silicates
Published in: Structure and Chemistry of Crystalline Solids
Publisher: Springer New York
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The formula for silica is very simple—SiO2. The silica structures (and those of metal silicates) have only SiO4 tetrahedra, and the 1:2 ratio of SiO2 requires that each oxygen atom is shared by two tetrahedra in silica. Even though the basis of the structures is very simple, there are three polymorphic structures of silica, and each of these has a low temperature form (a) and a high temperature form (b). The three polymorphic structures and their temperature ranges are shown below.