Purification and closed tube vapor growth of mercurous chloride single crystals

Facilities and equipment for purifying mercurous chloride (Hg2Cl 2) by multiple sublimation and growing single crystals by closed tube vapor transport were designed and constructed. Several experiments in purifying the source material with different types of purification column were performed. The powder X-ray diffraction spectrum of the purified material showed that was the dominant direction for growth of spontaneously nucleated mercurous chloride crystals. Several attempts of growing mercurous chloride single crystals were also performed. The experiments were carried out with different growth ampoule designs. In these experiments the growth interface temperatures were always below the expected stable isotherm. In addition, the stable growth temperatures and the growth rates were not repeatable. There are several possibilities that might have caused these inconsistencies. One of the crystals grown in these experiments was analyzed with the back- reflection Laue X-ray diffraction method.