Surface energy of spinel

The contributions of the Coulomb electrostatic interaction and the Born-Mayer repulsive interaction to the surface energy MgAl2O4 are calculated. These results are compared with the surface-energy values calculated from elastic constants. The results show that surfaces parallel to {111} planes are of lowest energy for MgAl2O4 spinel as well as some spinel ferrites. Except for qualitative evidence, most of these predictions await experimental …