TY - JOUR
T1 - Longitudinal piezoelectricity in natural calcite materials
T2 - Preliminary studies
AU - Guerin, Sarah
AU - Tofail, Syed A.M.
AU - Thompson, Damien
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 1994-2012 IEEE.
PY - 2018/6
Y1 - 2018/6
N2 - Here we report a preliminary quantitative investigation into calcite piezoelectricity using a combination of quantum mechanical modelling and electromechanical characterisation of naturally occurring calcite crystals and structures. The low symmetry of crystallised biomolecules - from amino acids and peptides to viruses and fibrous proteins - can result in useful electrical properties, including ferroelectricity, pyroelectricity, and piezoelectricity. Biominerals such as hydroxyapatite and calcite are generally not considered piezoelectric. This data represents the first quasi-static, longitudinal piezoelectric measurements on macroscopic calcite based materials; namely Icelandic spar and a variety of beach specimens. We substantiate these measurements using Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations, which attribute the measured weak, residual piezoelectric response in all directions to centrosymmetric calcite crystals. Our data is consistent with the observation of second harmonics generation by calcite microcrystals occurring in the human pineal gland.
AB - Here we report a preliminary quantitative investigation into calcite piezoelectricity using a combination of quantum mechanical modelling and electromechanical characterisation of naturally occurring calcite crystals and structures. The low symmetry of crystallised biomolecules - from amino acids and peptides to viruses and fibrous proteins - can result in useful electrical properties, including ferroelectricity, pyroelectricity, and piezoelectricity. Biominerals such as hydroxyapatite and calcite are generally not considered piezoelectric. This data represents the first quasi-static, longitudinal piezoelectric measurements on macroscopic calcite based materials; namely Icelandic spar and a variety of beach specimens. We substantiate these measurements using Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations, which attribute the measured weak, residual piezoelectric response in all directions to centrosymmetric calcite crystals. Our data is consistent with the observation of second harmonics generation by calcite microcrystals occurring in the human pineal gland.
KW - Bioelectric phenomena
KW - Biological system modelling
KW - Crystals
KW - Organic compounds
KW - Piezoelectricity
KW - Simulation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85047439142&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/TDEI.2017.007045
DO - 10.1109/TDEI.2017.007045
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85047439142
SN - 1070-9878
VL - 25
SP - 803
EP - 807
JO - IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation
JF - IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation
IS - 3
ER -