EXPERIMENT NO.

CRYSTALLOGRAPHY

OBJECTIVES:

 To define crystalline materials.

 To determine crystal structures of materials.
 To define and identify the crystal structures for metallic elements.
 To study crystal structures and crystals imperfections using ball models.

INTRODUCTION AND DISCUSSION OF THEORY:

Manipulation of materials through the fusion of fields of engineering and sciences have paved
the way to bring such raw minerals into resources which by means of exploring its properties and
processing in response to real-world problems.

Crystalline materials are characterized to have regular ordered arrays of components held
together by uniform intermolecular forces. It describes the periodic translational ordering of atoms or
molecules within a solid. The atoms or molecules form a three-dimensional arrangement within a single
repeating unit called a unit cell. The unit cell structure repeats in all directions at regular spacing, filling a
regular three-dimensional grid called a lattice. A high degree of this ordering, or crystallinity, is the
property required for a solid to be classified as a crystal. The degree of crystallinity of a solid affects
property of the solid such as its density, hardness, transparency and diffusion rate. These solids have
unique internal structure that in turn lead to distinctive flat surfaces and faces. When exposed to x-rays,
each structure also produces a pattern.

These materials usually grow in this shape due to highly organized, repeating
pattern – a defining feature of a crystal. Each crystalline material’s atomic
arrangement was classified into seven types that are responsible for the physical
appearance and properties of minerals in a crystalline structure. By stacking
identical unit cells, an entire lattice can be constructed. These crystal system
arrangements are known as cubic, tetragonal, orthorhombic, rhombohedral
(trigonal), hexagonal, monoclinic, and triclinic structure. Each type has different
conditions which crystals had to satisfy to grow into one of these geometric
shapes that reflect the arrangement of their atoms.
About 80 percent of elements in the periodic table are metals which are identified as crystalline solids at
room temperature except Cesium, Galium, and Mercury. Metals with crystalline structure tend to have
relatively sharp, well-defined melting points due the formation of lattice. Metals has different
structurization of crystals and they are usually closed-packed. Its metallic bonding is nondirectional
which means all charge is uniform in all directions. Moreover, there are minimal restrictions as to the
number and position of nearest-neighbor atoms that lead to a relatively large numbers of nearest
neighbors and dense of atomic packings for most metallic crystal structures. They are categorized as
either face-centered cubic (FCC), body-centered cubic (BCC), and hexagonal closed-packed (HCP).
In addition, there are 14 positions of lattice points known as Bravais lattices
named after Auguste Bravais. It plays a vital role in crystallography, describing
the arrangement of atoms or molecules in a crystal lattice that determines
physical and chemical properties of the material.
Every crystal’s atomic structure has unique properties which can be utilized for
real-world application in material science and medicine. Crystalline states are extremely
useful when studying a material's structure and looking for defects and dislocations within the crystalline
state or to understand the desired properties of the material such as band gaps in semiconductors and
electrical conductivity in other materials.