The precipitation behavior in Mg-6 wt%Zn-1 wt%Y alloy annealed at different temperatures of 200˚C and 400˚C has been characterized by high resolution transmission electron microscope. When the alloy is annealed at 200˚C for 6 hr, the plate- and the rod-shaped β2' phases are precipitated in the matrix. The orientation relationship of plate-shaped precipitates with the matrix exhibits a [11ar20]β2 || [10ar10]Mg, (0001)β2' || (0001)Mg. While the rod-shaped precipitates have two kinds of the orientation relationships with the matrix, i.e. [11ar20]β2'||[0001] Mg, (0001)β2'||(11ar20) Mg and [11ar20]β2'||[0001] Mg, (ar1106)β2'||(10ar10) Mg. With increasing annealing time at 200˚C the β1' phases are also precipitated in the matrix and the orientation relationship exhibits a [010]β1' || [0001]Mg, (603)β1' || (01ar10)Mg between the β1' precipitate and the matrix. The icosahedral phases are precipitated in the alloy annealed at 400˚C and exhibit a [I2]I || [0001]Mg relationship with the matrix.

The anatase particle was facetted at the free surface and a neck formation between the anatase particles prior to the phase transformation occured. This resulted in the severe lattice distortion at the region of the interface near the neck and this can act as the nucleation sites for the phase transformation. The grain growth of rutile particles after the phase transformation grew very fast by the sweeping phenomena of grain boundary. Therfore, It leaded to the microstructure without the rutile phase located in anatase particle.

Partially sericitized tourmaline from a pegmatite, Black Hills, South Dakota, U.S.A., was investigated using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). Muscovite occurs as the only alteration product of tourmaline, and it is developed extensively as narrow veinlets along the 110 and 100 cleavage directions of tourmaline, indicating that a cleavage-controlled alteration mechanism was dominant. Muscovite was characterized mainly as two-layer polytypes with minor stacking disorder, but tourmaline is almost free of structural defects. HRTEM images of tourmaline-muscovite interfaces revealed that the interfaces between two minerals are composed of well-defined 110 and 100 boundaries of tourmaline. The (001) of muscovite is in general parallel to the c-axis of tourmaline, but tourmaline and replacing muscovite do not show specific crystallographic orientation relationship; muscovite consists of numerous 100-1000a thick subparallel packets, and the angles between the (001) of muscovite and (110) of tourmaline is highly variable. Al/Si ratios of both minerals suggest that tourmaline to muscovite alteration by late magnetic fluids has been facilitated by their similar Al/Si ratio in the incipient alteration stage, in that the hydration reaction with preservation of Al and Si would require only addition of K+ and H2O. Aluminous minerals other than muscovite were not characterized as the alteration products of tourmaline, indicating that tourmaline reacted directly to muscovite; the tourmaline alteration apparently occurred by the presence of residual fluids in which K+ is available and silica was not undersaturated.