Quartz Research & Mining Consortium

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Quartz is a mineral, made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz, several of which are semi-precious gemstones.

Quartz is the source of many silicon compounds such as silicones (e.g. high performance polymers), silicon (e.g. microelectronics), and many other compounds of commercial importance. Quartz in the form of sand is reduced by carbothermic reaction as a first step in these energy-intensive processes. Owing to its high thermal and chemical stability and abundance, quartz is widely used in many large-scale applications related to abrasives, foundry materials, ceramics, and cements.

Quartz crystals have piezoelectric properties: they develop an electric potential upon the application of mechanical stress. A common piezoelectric use of quartz is as a crystal oscillator. The resonant frequency of a quartz crystal oscillator is changed by mechanically loading it, and this principle is used for very accurate measurements of mass changes