Many materials, both natural and man-made, exhibit piezoelectricity:
Naturally-occurring crystals
- Berlinite (AlPO4)
- Berlinite (aluminium phosphate, chemical fomula AlPO4) is a rare phosphate mineral. It has the same crystal structure as quartz with a low temperature polytype isostructural with α–quartz and a high temperature polytype isostructural with β–quartz.Berlinite can vary from colourless to greyish or pale pink and has translucent crystals.
- Cane sugar
Sugar Cane
Sugarcane refers to any of six to 37 species (depending on which taxonomic system is used) of tall perennial grasses of the genus Saccharum (family Poaceae, tribe Andropogoneae). Native to warm temperate to tropical regions of Asia, they have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar, and measure two to six meters (six to 19 feet) tall. All sugar cane species interbreed, and the major commercial cultivars are complex hybrids.
- Quartz
Quartz Crystals
Quartz is the second most abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz, several of which are semi-precious gemstones. Especially in Europe and the Middle East, varieties of quartz have been since antiquity the most commonly used minerals in the making of jewelry and hardstone carvings.
- Rochelle salt
Rochelle Salt
Potassium sodium tartrate is a double salt first prepared (in about 1675) by an apothecary, Pierre Seignette, of La Rochelle, France. As a result the salt was known as Seignette's salt or Rochelle salt. Rochelle salt is not to be confused with rock salt, which is simply the mineral form of sodium chloride. Potassium sodium tartrate and monopotassium phosphate were the first materials discovered to exhibit piezoelectricity. This property led to its extensive use in "crystal" gramophone (phono) pick-ups, microphones and earpieces during the post-War consumer electronics boom of the mid-20th Century. Such transducers had an exceptionally high output with typical pick-up cartridge outputs as much as 2 volts or more.
- Topaz
Sample of Topaz
Topaz is a silicate mineral of aluminium and fluorine with the chemical formula Al2SiO4(F,OH)2. Topaz crystallizes in the orthorhombic system and its crystals are mostly prismatic terminated by pyramidal and other faces.
- Tourmaline-group minerals
Tourmaline Group
Tourmaline is a crystal boron silicate mineral compounded with elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. Tourmaline is classified as a semi-precious stone and the gem comes in a wide variety of colors. The name comes from the Sinhalese word "Thuramali" or "Thoramalli", which applied to different gemstones found in Sri Lanka.
