Crystal Structure of Metals

Introduction
Solid materials may be classified according to the regularity with which
atoms or ions are arranged with respect to one another.
A crystalline material: is one in which the atoms are situated in a
repeating or periodic array over large atomic distances; that is, long-range
order exists, such that upon solidification, the atoms will position
themselves in a repetitive three-dimensional pattern, in which each atom is
bonded to its nearest-neighbor atoms. All metals, many ceramic materials,
and certain polymers form crystalline structures under normal
solidification conditions.
For those that do not crystallize, this long-range atomic order is absent;
these non-crystalline or amorphous materials. For example (glass) and
some of complex metallic materials.
Some of the properties of crystalline solids depend on the crystal structure of the
material

Lattice Space and Unit Cell:

When describing crystalline structures, atoms (or ions) are thought of as
being solid spheres having well-defined diameters. This is termed the
atomic hard sphere model in which spheres representing nearest-neighbor
atoms touch one another.
An example of the hard sphere model for the atomic arrangement found in
some of the common elemental metals is displayed in Figure (2.1). In this
particular case all the atoms are identical. Sometimes the term lattice is
used in the context of crystal structures; in this sense “lattice” means a
three-dimensional array of points coinciding with atom positions (or
sphere centers).

Figure (2.1): Lattice space and unit cell

The unit cell:

The atomic order in crystalline solids indicates that small groups of atoms
form a repetitive pattern. Thus, in describing crystal structures, it is often
convenient to subdivide the structure into small repeat entities called unit
cells. Is the basic structural unit or building block of the crystal structure
and defines the crystal structure by virtue of its geometry and the atom
positions within.
There are 14 types of crystal structure in various engineering materials as shown in
figure (2.2). The important crystal structures among all of them are:

- The body- centered cubic structure (BCC).

- The face- centered cubic structure (FCC).
- Hexagonal close- packed structure (HCP).
The Face-Centered Cubic Crystal Structure
The crystal structure found for many metals has a unit cell of cubic
geometry, with atoms located at each of the corners and the centers of all
the cube faces. It is called the face-centered cubic (FCC) crystal
structure. Some of the familiar metals having this crystal structure are
copper, aluminum, silver, and gold.
The mechanical properties of FCC are:
- Low young modulus
- Low yield strength
- Low hardness
- Good ductility and high ability for forming.
 - Figure 2.3a shows a hard sphere model for the FCC unit cell,
whereas in Figure 2.3b the atom centers are represented by small
circles to provide a better perspective of atom positions. The
aggregate of atoms in Figure 2.3c represents a section of crystal
consisting of many FCC unit cells. These spheres or ion cores touch
one another across a face diagonal; the cube edge length a and the
atomic radius R are related through
-
-
- For the FCC crystal structure, each corner atom is shared among eight unit
cells,
- whereas a face-centered atom belongs to
only two. Therefore, one-eighth of each
of the eight corner atoms and one-half of
each of the six face atoms, or a total of
four whole atoms, may be assigned to a
given unit cell.
-
- Figure(2.3): a. Hard sphere model of FCC ,
b. reduced sphere unit cell, and c. crystal
consist many FCC unit cells.

Two other important characteristics of a crystal structure are the

coordination number and the atomic packing factor (APF). For metals,
each atom has the same number of nearest-neighbor or touching atoms,
which is the coordination number.
For face-centered cubics, the coordination number is 12. This may be
confirmed by examination of Figure, below the front face atom has four
corner nearest-neighbor atoms surrounding it, four face atoms that are in
contact from behind, and four other equivalent face atoms residing in the
next unit cell to the front, which is not shown.

The APF is the sum of the sphere volumes of all atoms within a unit cell (assuming
the atomic hard sphere model) divided by the unit cell volume—that is

For the FCC structure, the atomic packing factor is 0.74, which is the
maximum packing possible for spheres all having the same diameter.

The Body-Centered Cubic Crystal Structure

Another common metallic crystal structure also has a cubic unit cell with
atoms located at all eight corners and a single atom at the cube center. This
is called a body-centered cubic (BCC) crystal structure. A collection of
spheres depicting this crystal structure is shown in Figure 2.4c, whereas
Figures 2.4a and 2.4b are diagrams of BCC unit cells with the atoms
represented by hard sphere and reduced-sphere models, respectively.
Chromium, iron, and tungsten are listed through BCC structure, and their
mechanical properties are:
- High yield strength
- High young modulus
- High hardness
- High tensile strength
- Limited ability to forming.
 Figure(2.4): a. Hard sphere model of BCC , b. reduced sphere unit cell, and c. crystal
consist many BCC unit cells.

Center and corner atoms touch one another along cube diagonals, and unit
cell length a and atomic radius R are related through

Two atoms are associated with each BCC unit cell: the equivalent of one
atom from the eight corners, each of which is shared among eight unit
cells, and the single center atom, which is wholly contained within its cell.
The coordination number for the BCC crystal structure is 8; each
center atom has as nearest neighbors its eight corner atoms as shown in
figure below.

Since the coordination number is less for BCC than FCC, so also is the
atomic packing factor for BCC lower—0.68 versus 0.74.
The Hexagonal Close-Packed Crystal Structure
Not all metals have unit cells with cubic symmetry; the final common
metallic crystal structure to be discussed has a unit cell that is hexagonal.
Figure 2.5a shows a reduced-sphere unit cell for this structure, which is
termed hexagonal close packed (HCP); an assemblage of several HCP
unit cells is presented in Figure 2.5b.

Figure(2.5): a. a reduced-sphere unit cell and (b) an aggregate of many atoms.

The top and bottom faces of the unit cell consist of six atoms that form
regular hexagons and surround a single atom in the center. Another plane
that provides three additional atoms to the unit cell is situated between the
top and bottom planes. The atoms in this midplane have as nearest
neighbors atoms in both of the adjacent two planes.
The equivalent of six atoms is contained in each unit cell; one-sixth of
each of the 12 top and bottom face corner atoms, one-half of each of the 2
center face atoms, and all 3 midplane interior atoms.
The coordination number and the atomic packing factor for the HCP
crystal structure are the same as for FCC: 12 and 0.74, respectively. see
figure below.

unit cell length a and atomic radius R are related through

a = 2R

The HCP metals include cadmium, magnesium, titanium, and zinc; their
properties are:
- Is brittle
- Low yield strength
- Inability to forming

These are some metals listed in Table 2.1.

Example Problem1:
 Example Problem 2

DENSITY COMPUTATIONS
A knowledge of the crystal structure of a metallic solid permits computation of its
theoretical density through the relationship

Where:
NA: Avogadro’s number (6.023 × 1023 atoms/mol(
VC : volume of the unit cell
A : atomic weight
n : number of atoms associated with each unit cell
Example Problem 3:

Crystallographic Planes
The orientations of planes for a crystal structure are represented in a
similar manner.
Miller indices are specified by three Miller indices as (hkl). Any two
planes parallel to each other are equivalent and have identical indices. The
procedure employed in determination of the h, k, and l index numbers is as
follows:
1. The crystallographic plane either intersects or parallels each of the three
axes; the length of the planar intercept for each axis is determined in terms
of the lattice parameters a, b, and c.
2. The reciprocals of these numbers are taken. A plane that parallels an
axis may be considered to have an infinite intercept, and, therefore, a zero
index.
3. If necessary, these three numbers are changed to the set of smallest
integers by multiplication or division by a common factor.
4. Finally, the integer indices, not separated by commas, are enclosed
within parentheses, thus: (hkl).
An intercept on the negative side of the origin is indicated by a bar or
minus sign positioned over the appropriate index.

Examples: