Topic summary
Impurities
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Chemical impurity.
Impurities are either naturally occurring or added during synthesis of a chemical or commercial product. During production, impurities may be purposely or accidentally added to the substance. The removal of unwanted impurities may require the use of separation or purification techniques such as distillation or zone refining. In other cases, impurities might be added to acquire certain properties of a material such as the color in gemstones or conductivity in semiconductors. Impurities may also affect crystallization as they can act as nucleation sites that start crystal growth. Impurities can also play a role in nucleation of other phase transitions in the form of defects.