Tubular halloysite from Wagon Wheel Gap, Colorado and spheroidal halloysite from Redwood County, Minnesota were examined by transmission electron microscopy. Clay samples were prepared by the following techniques: drop-mounted suspension on carbon support films; thin sections of clay in Araldite epoxy resin; and carbon-platinum-palladium single-stage replicas.

Both types of dehydrated halloysite have interlayer separations between packets of layers. Halloysite tubes are composed of packets as thin as five layers which sometimes reveal a rolled interior configuration in cross-sectional view. Thicker tubes are composed of many layers per packet. Some large tubes appear in cross section as folded packets of layers. The interior morphology of spheroidal halloysite particles is more irregular and the layer structure is more discontinuous than in most tubes. The spheroidal halloysite of this study is characterized by external tangential plates with hexagonal shape suggestive of kaolinite.

The stability of smectite separated from a Houston Black clay soil was studied by solubility methods in an acid environment. High Silicon levels (supersaturated with respect to amorphous Si) probably were due to dissolution of the smectite and slow precipitation of amorphous Silicon. Also, mica and vermiculite impurities may have contributed to high solution Si values. Solubility data from equilibrium solutions of various treatments and chemical structural analyses permitted the formulation of a solubility equation. The ΔG°f for the Houston Black smectite computed from pK values was —2433.9 ± 0.8 kcal/mole. The stability of this clay could then be determined by calculations for any desired solution environment. It was found that under some conditions this soil smectite could be more stable than Belle Fourche and Aberdeen montmorillonites. Therefore, it appears that this soil clay has the required stability area in which it can form in nature.

A model of seed germination is proposed which uses a variable with the units of an osmotic potential (virtual osmotic potential) to integrate the effect of a constant or a varying water potential. This differs from existing models that describe the effects of fixed water potentials on germination, or the effects of fixed priming water potentials on the subsequent germination at a fixed water potential. When a seed is sown, the virtual osmotic potential is assumed to fall at a rate that depends on the ambient water potential, and on the difference between its current and a minimum value. Radicle growth is assumed to initiate when the difference between the ambient water potential and the virtual osmotic potential exceeds a threshold. The germination of carrot and onion seeds at various fixed potentials below 0 MPa was well described by the virtual osmotic potential model. The model was also used to simulate the results of experiments in which seeds were given a single step change in water potential.

MgO is used as an optical isolation layer for waveguides epitaxially grown on silicon. The crystalline perfection of MgO is a critical issue because it serves as a substrate for the single crystal, perovskite guiding layer. Imperfections in the MgO will result in imperfections in the guiding layer and lead to large optical losses for the planar waveguide structure. We show that the most common defect to form in thin films of MgO are twin boundaries between {111}-type planes. The highest density of twins is observed when (001) MgO is grown directly on silicon/MgO interlayers containing barium. Twinning is shown to accommodate the large size of barium impurities incorporated in the MgO films through the formation of internal grain boundaries and open surfaces other than the growing (001) of MgO.