Crystal Structures &

Crystal Geometry
 The Platonic Solids
Dodecahedron Icosahedron

Cube 20 faces and 12 vertices

Octahedron Tetrahedron
http://home.teleport.com/~tpgettys/platonic.shtml
Christian Huygens,
1690
 Snow flakes
Bentley captured more than 5000 snowflakes during his lifetime, not

finding any two alike.

 Caltech work

http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/
What I expect you to know for
thi course
this
 Space
p Lattice

Atomic arrangements in crystalline solids can

be described with respect to a network of
lines in three dimensions.
The intersections of the lines are called “lattice
lattice
sites” (or lattice points). Each lattice site has
sites
the same environment in the same direction.
Ap
particular arrangement
g of atoms in a crystal
y structure can
be described by specifying the atom positions in a
repeating “unit
unit cell”.
cell
Lattice: regular pattern
Bravais
14 Bravais
Lattices
Why
y not p
pentagons???
g
 Principal Metal Crystal Structures

There are three principle crystal

structures for metals:
Really important for
–(a)
(a) Body-centered cubic (BCC)
Thi course!!
This !!
–(b) Face-centered cubic (FCC)
–(c) Hexagonal close-packed (HCP)
Body-centered cubic (BCC)
BCC
Face-centered cubic (FCC)
( )
Geometry of the BCC
Structure
FCC
Geometry of the FCC Structure
Hexagonal close-packed
(HCP)
HCP
Geometry
y of the HCP Structure
 Relationships

Si
Simple b BCC
l cube FCC

a=2r
Directions in a crystal
Directions in a crystal
y

Negative: use overbar

Example
Fraction
 For cubic system
y

<100> edge direction

<110> face diagonal
<111> body diagonal
Directions FCC
Directions BCC
 Interstial spaces

It depends on the r/R ratios,

ratios
leading to different coordination numbers

4
Interstial spaces

6
Interstial spaces -8
8
Interstial spaces -12
12
 Examples

NaCl (FCC, octahedral bonding)

Examples – SiO2
Some
So e Materials
ate a s have
a e Different
e e tCCrystal
ysta
Structures at Different Temperatures

Many elements and compounds exist in more than one crystalline

form under different conditions of temperature and pressure.
This phenomenon is called polymorphism or allotropy.
Last Century work

The Nobel Prize in Physics 1914

for his discovery of the diffraction of
"for
X-rays by crystals"
Pauling

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1954

"for his research into the nature of
the chemical
bond and its application to the
elucidation of the
structure
t t off complex
l substances"
b t "
Penrose tiling
The C60 or 'Buckball' belongs to a very
small set of known molecules with
icosahedral symmetry

Curl, Kroto, Smalley

received the Nobel
prize
i ini Chemistry
Ch i 1996
1996.