Project Abstract:
Apatites are found in everything from natural sources like bone,
shells and rocks to materials found in fluorescent light bulbs and
treatment of industrial and nuclear wastes. We have used
computational methods to study the energetics and crystal structure
of fluorapatite as well as starting to study chloro and bromo apatite
when placed under pressure. For fluorapatite, when we apply
pressures up to 100 GPa, we see a contraction of the cell lattice
especially along the a axis while the c axis does not change as
dramatically. As expected, the phosphate groups become more
tetrahedral with applied pressure. We will continue this work as
fluorapatite is replaced with chloro and bromo apatite as well as
other possible substitutions both with and without pressure.
|