What can we learn from nature? The study of the physical, chemical and structural properties of well-known minerals in the geo- and biosphere creates new opportunities for innovative applications in technology, environment or medicine. This book highlights today’s research on outstanding minerals such as garnets used as components in all solid state batteries, delafossite formation during wastewater treatment, monazites for the immobilization of high level radioactive waste or hyroxylapatite as bioactive material for medical implant applications.



Contents
Part I: High-technology materials
Lithium ion–conducting oxide garnets
Olivine-type battery materials
Natural and synthetic zeolites
Microstructure analysis of chalcopyrite-type CuInSe2 and kesterite-type Cu2ZnSnSe4 absorber layers in thin film solar cells
Surface-engineered silica via plasma polymer deposition
Crystallographic symmetry analysis in NiTi shape memory alloys



Part II: Environmental mineralogy
Gold, silver, and copper in the geosphere and anthroposphere: can industrial wastewater act as an anthropogenic resource?
Applied mineralogy for recovery from the accident of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station
Phosphates as safe containers for radionuclides
Immobilization of high-level waste calcine (radwaste) in perovskites
Titanate ceramics for high-level nuclear waste immobilization



Part III: Biomineralization, biomimetics, and medical mineralogy
Patterns of mineral organization in carbonate biological hard materials
Sea urchin spines as role models for biological design and integrative structures
Nacre: a biomineral, a natural biomaterial, and a source of bio-inspiration
Hydroxylapatite coatings: applied mineralogy research in the bioceramics field
A procedure to apply spectroscopic techniques in the investigation of silica-bearing industrial materials

Contributions by: Akhavan Behnam, Gerald Buck, Fabio Capacci, Antonio Checa, Francesco Di Benedetto, Anton Eisenhauer, Reto Giere, Hermann Gies, Erika Griesshaber, Rene Gunder, Robert B. Heimann, Antje Hirsch, Markus Hoelzel, Karyn Jarvis, Christian Julien, Peter M. Kadletz, Katharina Klang, Klemens Kelm, Christoph Lauer, Leonhard Leppin, Gregory R. Lumpkin, Bernd Marler, Julien Marquardt, Alain Mauger, Peter Majewski, Stefan Neumeier, Klaus Nickel, Luca Pardi, Peter Lars, Herbert Pöllmann, Daniel Rettenwander, Georg Roth, Maurizio Romanelli, Marthe Rousseau, Tsutomu Sato, Korbinian Schiebel, Hartmut Schlenz, Wolfgang Schmahl, Katherine L. Smith, Susan Schorr, Stefan Stöber, Reinhard Wagner, Xiaofei Yin, Andreas Ziegler