The Seven Crystal Systems
The seven crystal systems are a method of classifying crystals according to their atomic lattice or structure. The atomic lattice is a three dimensional network of atoms that are arranged in a…
THE STRUCTURE OF CRYSTALS
The beauty and symmetry of crystals have fascinated people for thousands of years. Somehow, they seem different from more ordinary matter. However, most solid objects are made of many tiny…
Unit Cells: Calculating Metallic or Ionic Radii
Estimates of the radii of most metal atoms can be found. Where do these data come from? How do we know, for example, that the radius of a nickel atom…
Unit Cells: Determining the Unit Cell of a Crystal
Atoms on the corners, edges, and faces of a unit cell are shared by more than one unit cell, as shown in the figure below. An atom on a face…
Unit Cells: Measuring the Distance Between Particles
Nickel is one of the metals that crystallize in a cubic closest-packed structure. When you consider that a nickel atom has a mass of only 9.75 x 10-23 g and an…
Unit Cells: NaCl and ZnS
NaCl should crystallize in a cubic closest-packed array of Cl- ions with Na+ ions in the octahedral holes between planes of Cl- ions. We can translate this information into a unit-cell model for NaCl by remembering…
Unit Cells: A Three-Dimensional Graph
The lattice points in a cubic unit cell can be described in terms of a three-dimensional graph. Because all three cell-edge lengths are the same in a cubic unit cell,…
Unit Cells
The Simplest Repeating Unit in a CrystalA Three-Dimensional GraphNaCl and ZnSMeasuring the Distance Between ParticlesDetermining the Unit Cell of a CrystalCalculating Metallic or Ionic Radii Unit Cells: The Simplest Repeating Unit in…
Properties of Crystalline and Non crystalline Solids
Geometrical Shape Crystalline Solids: Crystalline solids have a well-defined geometrical shape due to the regular arrangement of unit cells. Noncrystalline Solids: Non-crystalline solids do not have well-defined geometrical shape. Range Order Crystalline Solids: Crystalline…
Difference Between Crystalline and Non crystalline Solids
Crystalline Solids and Non-crystalline Solids are the two main categories of solids that show some difference between them in terms of the arrangement of the constituent particles and other properties. The key difference between…
