Needing images of atoms for project

[cosmosis]

I am looking for ways to illustrate the chemical makeup of minerals.

I belong to a mineral club and I am scheduled to give a presentation to the children about the polymorph mineral group of Kyanite, Andalusite, and Sillimanite. I would like to have images of the atoms that make up these minerals to illustrate the molecular structure of the materials. I tried Google and went 20 pages deep and came up with nothing. I am sure there must be a website somewhere that would have those images. I am not looking for anything fancy ... just a diagram showing nucleus and electrons that will print well as well as show up well on a computer screen. The elements I am looking for are aluminum, silicon, and oxygen. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Paul in Marietta

 

[Gokul43201]

Do you want to see images of the crystal structures of kyanite, andalusite and sillimanite or simply the pictorial representations of the contituent atoms (Al, Si, O) - the latter will really tell you nothing about the crystal structure of the minerals.

Crystal structures :
http://www.geo.ucalgary.ca/~tmenard/crystal/alsi.html
http://www.minweb.co.uk/silicates/kyanexpd.html

Atomic Configurations :
http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/O/econ.html
http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Si/econ.html
http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Al/econ.html

 

[cosmosis]

crystal structures

The atomic configuration images were great! Thanks! I tried viewing the crystal structures but my browser kept telling me I need a plugin but then it could not find one. I emailed the site owner asking for help but whow knows?

 

[Pieter Kuiper]

Files for kyanite, andalusite and sillimanite (Al2SiO5) come with CrystalMaker. To see the differences, one often draws (distorted) octaedra around Al and tetrahedra around Si. See the attached file of kyanite.

Sillimanite also has aluminum in tetraedral coordination.

Andulusite (not inluded here) looks complicated.