Several crystallography databases are offered for browsing, each of which having a slightly different purpose. You can search the databases, display the contained CIFs, view 3D models of the crystal structure and morphology or compute and display their lattice fringe fingerprint plots.
The COD Subset available here is a mainly inorganic and educational subset of the Crystallography Open Database (COD) project. The data have been cleaned up and various checks for crystallographic consistency have been performed on them.
The Nano-Crystallography Database aims to collect data about nanocrystals. Size information on the crystals is required for inclusion of data into this database. Everyone can upload data after registration.
The Crystal Morphology Database collects morphological information on both large and small crystals.
The Wiki Crystallography Database is a collaborative community project in the Wiki format. This database is open for uploading and editing by everyone, no login is required. All interested people with something to contribute are invited to work on this database. The only restriction is that all entries need to be in the CIF format. You do not, however, need to know the CIF syntax to be able to contribute.
The Wiki Crystallography Database and its initial set-up with selected mineral data from the Crystallography Open Database recognizes the fact that there is a wealth of crystallographic / mineralogical knowledge distributed in non-digital form all over the world. As the computational infrastructure for such a project is very modest and a “common language” exists in the form of the Crystallographic Information File (CIF) of the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) we – the people of the world with interests in crystals and minerals – laymen and scientists alike could together create this world’s open-access digital depository for such data.
I said to the proprietor of a shop in Ballater, on Deeside, “That’s a fine group of smoky quartz in your window.” He replied “That’s no smoky quartz, that’s topaz. It’s a crystal. You can tell crystals by the angles between their faces. If you’re interested, I’ll lend you a book on the subject.” On return to base I looked up a book on mineralogy which said ”Smoky quartz, also known as Cairngorm, is called Topaz in Scotland.”This is from A Random Walk in Science: The high standard of education in Scotland, published by IOP, as quoted in J. R. Helliwell, X-ray crystal structure analysis in Manchester: from W. L. Bragg to the present day, Z. Kristallogr. 217 (2002) 385-389.
