Gypsum: From the Equilibrium to the Growth Shapes—Theory and Experiments

The gypsum crystals (CaSO4·2H2O) crystallizes in a low symmetry system (monoclinic) and shows a marked layered structure along with a perfect cleavage parallel to the {010} faces. Owing to its widespread occurrence, as a single or twinned crystal, here the gypsum equilibrium (E.S.) and growth shapes (G.S.) have been re-visited. In making the distinction among E.S. and G.S., in the present work, the basic difference between epitaxy and homo-taxy is clearly evidenced. Gypsum has also been a fruitful occasion to recollect the general rules concerning either contact or penetration twins, for free growing and for twinned crystals nucleating onto pre-existing substrates. Both geometric and crystal growth aspects have been considered as well, by unifying theory and experiments of crystallography and crystal growth through the intervention of βadh, the physical quantity representing the specific adhesion energy between gypsum and other phases. Hence, the adhesion energy allowed us to systematically use the Dupré’s formula. In the final part of the paper, peculiar attention has been paid to sediments (or solution growth) where the crystal size is very small, in order to offer a new simple way to afford classical (CNT) and non-classical nucleation (NCNT) theories, both ruling two quantities commonly used in the industrial crystallization: the total induction times (tindtotal) and crystal size distribution (CSD).