UBAY National High School

Ubay, Labason, Zamboanga del Norte

G12 STEM ONLY Basic Chemistry2
Learning

2
Activity Sheet

Solids & Intermolecular Forces

Introduction to calculus

Wk2

Content Standards
Properties of solids to the nature of forces (STEM_GC11IMF-IIIa-c-103)

Introduction
There are many ways to classify solids, but the broadest categories are crystalline solids, those with a highly regular
arrangement of their components, and amorphous solids, those with considerable disorder in their structures.
The positions of the components in a crystalline solid are usually represented by a lattice, a three-dimensional system of
points designating the positions of the components (atoms, ions, or molecules) that make up the substance. The smallest repeating
unit of the lattice is called the unit cell. Thus a particular lattice can be generated by repeating the unit cell in all three
dimensions to form the extended structure. Three common unit cells and their lattices are shown in the Figure below. Note from the
Figure that the extended structure in each case can be viewed as a series of repeating unit cells that share common faces in the
interior of the solid.

Common glass, which is an example of an amorphous solid is best pictured as a solution in which the components are “frozen
in place” before they can achieve an ordered arrangement. Although glass is a solid (it has a rigid shape), a great deal of
disorder exists in its structure.

X-Ray Analysis of Solids

The structures of crystalline solids are most commonly determined by X-ray diffraction.
Diffraction occurs when beams of light are scattered from a regular array of points in which the spacings between the
components are comparable with the wavelength of the light. Diffraction is due to constructive interference when the waves
of parallel beams are in phase and to destructive interference when the waves are out of phase.
William Henry Bragg (1862–1942) and his son William Lawrence Bragg (1890–1972), who shared the Nobel Prize in physics in
1915 for their pioneering work in X-ray crystallography, had created the Bragg Equation;
n𝝀 = 2d sin 𝜽

where n is an integer and 𝜆 is the wavelength of the X rays. See the Figure below:
X rays scattered from two different atoms may reinforce (constructive interference) or cancel (destructive interference) one
another. (a) Both the incident rays and the reflected rays are also in phase. In this case, d1 is such that the difference in the
distances traveled by the two rays is a whole number of wavelengths. (b) The incident rays are in phase but the reflected rays
are exactly out of phase. In this case d2 is such that the difference in distances traveled by the two rays is an odd number of
half wavelengths.

Example Problem:
X-rays of wavelength 1.54 Å were used to analyze an aluminum crystal. A reflection was produced at degrees. Assuming n = 1,
calculate the distance d between the planes of atoms producing this reflection.

Solution
To determine the distance between the planes, with n = 1, 𝜆 = 1.54 Å, and 𝜃 = 19.3 degrees. Since
2d sin 𝜃 = n𝜆 ,
then
d = n𝜆 / 2 sin 𝜃
d = (1)(1.54 Å) / 2 sin 19.30
d = 2.33 Å or 233 pm

Types of Crystalline Solids

Two important types of solids: ionic solids, represented by sodium chloride, and molecular solids, represented by sucrose.
Ionic solids have ions at the points of the lattice that describes the structure of the solid. A molecular solid, on the other
hand, has discrete covalently bonded molecules at each of its lattice points. Ice is a molecular solid that has an H 2O molecule
at each point.
A third type of solid is represented by elements such as carbon (which exists in the forms graphite, diamond, and the
fullerenes), boron, silicon, and all metals. These substances all have atoms at the lattice points that describe the structure of the
solid. Therefore, we call solids of this type atomic solids.

Examples of three types of

crystalline solids. Only part of
the structure is shown in each
case. (a) An atomic solid. (b)
An ionic solid. (c) A molecular
solid. The dotted lines show
the hydrogen bonding
interactions among the polar
water molecules.

Structure and Bonding in Metals

Metals are characterized by high thermal and electrical conductivity, malleability, and ductility. These properties are due to the
nondirectional covalent bonding found in metallic crystals.
A metallic crystal can be pictured as containing spherical atoms packed together and bonded to each other equally in all
directions. Such is called closest packing. The spheres are packed in layers, in which each sphere is surrounded by six others.
In the second layer the spheres do not lie directly over those in the first layer. Instead, each one occupies an indentation (or
dimple) formed by three spheres in the first layer. In the third layer the spheres can occupy the dimples of the second layer in
two possible ways: the hexagonal closest packed (hcp) structure, spheres occupy positions so that each sphere in the third
layer lies directly over a sphere in the first layer (the aba arrangement) and the cubic closest packed (ccp) structure, spheres
occupy positions so that no sphere in the third layer lies over one in the first layer (the abc arrangement).

When spheres are closest packed so

that the spheres in the third layer are
directly over those in the first layer
(aba), the unit cell is the hexagonal
prism illustrated here in red.
When spheres are packed in the abc arrangement, the
unit cell is face-centered cubic. To make the cubic
arrangement easier to see, the vertical axis has been
tilted as shown.

Example Problem:
Silver crystallizes in a cubic closest packed structure. The radius of a silver atom is 144 pm.
Calculate the density of solid silver.
Solution:
The structure is cubic closest packed, which means the unit cell is face-centered cubic, as shown below. The number of atoms
in a unit cell is equal to
8 x 1/8 + 6 x 1/2 = 1 + 3 = 4 atoms
The diagonal of the face of the cube = 4r and according to the Phythagorean theorem,
2r2 = d2 + d2
(4𝑟)2
Or, d=√ = r√8 Since r = 144 pm for a silver atom,
2
d = (144 pm)√8 = 407 pm
The volume of the unit cell is d3, which is (407 pm)3. Converting to cubic centimeters as follows:
d3 = (144 pm)3 = 6.74 x 107 pm3 (1.00 x 10-10 cm/1 pm) = 6.74 x 10-23 cm3

Since we know that the net number of atoms in the face-centered cubic unit cell is 4, we have 4 silver atoms contained in a
volume of 6.74 x 10-23 cm3. The density is therefore
𝑔
𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 (4 𝐴𝑔 𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑠)(107.9𝑚𝑜𝑙)(1 𝑚𝑜𝑙/6.022 𝑥 1023 𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚)
𝐷𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 = = = 𝟏𝟎. 𝟔 𝒈/𝒄𝒎𝟑
𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 6.74 𝑥 10−23 𝑐𝑚3

Metal Alloys
Because of the nature of the structure and bonding of metals, other elements can be introduced into a metallic crystal relatively
easily to produce substances called alloys. An alloy is defined as a substance that contains a mixture of elements and has
metallic properties. Alloys can be conveniently classified into two types.
1) Substitutional alloy some of the host metal atoms are replaced by other metal atoms of similar size. For example, in brass,
approximately one-third of the atoms in the host copper metal have been replaced by zinc atoms.
2) Interstitial alloy is formed when some of the interstices (holes) in the closest packed metal structure are occupied by small
atoms. Steel, the best-known interstitial alloy, contains carbon atoms in the holes of an iron crystal.

Carbon and Silicon: Network Atomic Solids

Many atomic solids contain strong directional covalent bonds to form a solid that might best be viewed as a “giant molecule.”
We call these substances network solids. In contrast to metals, these materials are typically brittle and do not efficiently conduct heat
or electricity. Two very important elements, carbon and silicon, are examples of network solids.
The two most common forms of carbon, diamond and graphite, are typical network solids. In diamond, the hardest
naturally occurring substance, each carbon atom is surrounded by a tetrahedral arrangement of other carbon atoms to form a
huge molecule. Diamond, which is known to be an electrical insulator—it does not conduct an electric current.
Graphite is very different from diamond. While diamond is hard, basically colorless, and an insulator, graphite is slippery,
black, and a conductor. These differences, of course, arise from the differences in bonding in the two types of solids. In
contrast to the tetrahedral arrangement of carbon atoms in diamond, the structure of graphite is based on layers of carbon
atoms arranged in fused six-membered rings.
Silicon is an important constituent of the compounds that make up the earth’s crust. In fact, silicon is to geology as carbon is
to biology. Just as carbon compounds are the basis for most biologically significant systems, silicon compounds are
fundamental to most of the rocks, sands, and soils found in the earth’s crust. However, although carbon and silicon are next to
each other in Group 4A of the periodic table, the carbon-based compounds of biology and the silicon-based compounds of
geology have markedly different structures. Carbon compounds typically contain long strings of carbon–carbon bonds,
whereas the most stable silicon compounds involve chains with silicon–oxygen bonds.
The fundamental silicon–oxygen compound is silica, which has the empirical formula SiO2. Carbon dioxide (CO2) and silica
(SiO2) are very much different from each other. While carbon dioxide is a gas in ordinary condition, silica is solid. The
difference lies in the bonding. Silica is used as a raw material in glass production. When silica is heated above its melting point
(about 16000 C) and cooled rapidly, an amorphous solid called a glass results

Ceramics
Ceramics are typically made from clays (which contain silicates) and hardened by firing at high temperatures. Ceramics are
nonmetallic materials that are strong, brittle, and resistant to heat and attack by chemicals.
Like glass, ceramics are based on silicates, but with that the resemblance ends. Glass can be melted and remelted as often as
desired, but once a ceramic has been hardened, it is resistant to extremely high temperatures. This behavior results from the
very different structures of glasses and ceramics. A glass is a homogeneous, noncrystalline “frozen solution,” and a ceramic is
heterogeneous. A ceramic contains two phases: minute crystals of silicates that are suspended in a glassy cement.
Semiconductors
Elemental silicon has the same structure as diamond, as might be expected from its position in the periodic table (in Group 4A
directly under carbon). Unlike carbon, in Silicon a few electrons can cross the gap at making silicon a semiconducting element,
or semiconductor. In addition, at higher temperatures, where more energy is available to excite electrons into the conduction
bands, the conductivity of silicon increases. This is typical behavior for a semiconducting element and is in contrast to that of
metals, whose conductivity decreases with increasing temperature.
The small conductivity of silicon can be enhanced at normal temperatures if the silicon crystal is doped with certain other
elements. For example, when a small fraction of silicon atoms is replaced by arsenic atoms, each having one more valence
electron than silicon, extra electrons become available for conduction.

Molecular Solids
Molecular solids are types of solids that contain discrete molecular units at each lattice position. A common example is ice,
where the lattice positions are occupied by water molecules. Other examples are dry ice (solid carbon dioxide), some forms of
sulfur that contain S8 molecules, and certain forms of phosphorus that contain P4 molecules. These substances are
characterized by strong covalent bonding within the molecules but relatively weak forces between the molecules. These
substances are characterized by strong covalent bonding within the molecules but relatively weak forces between the molecules.

Ionic Solids
Ionic solids are stable, high-melting substances held together by the strong electrostatic forces that exist between oppositely
charged ions. The structures of most binary ionic solids, such as sodium chloride, can be explained by the closest packing of
spheres. Typically, the larger ions, usually the anions, are packed in one of the closest packing arrangements (hcp or ccp), and
the smaller cations fit into holes among the closest packed anions. The packing is done in a way that maximizes the
electrostatic attractions among oppositely charged ions and minimizes the repulsions among ions with like charges.

Table below summarizes these types of solids and some of their properties.

Example Problem:
Using the Table above, classify each of the following substances according to the type of solid
it forms.
a. Gold b. Carbon dioxide c. Lithium fluoride d. Krypton

Solution
a. Solid gold is an atomic solid with metallic properties.
b. Solid carbon dioxide contains nonpolar carbon dioxide molecules and is a molecular
solid.
c. Solid lithium fluoride contains Liand Fions and is a binary ionic solid.
d. Solid krypton contains krypton atoms that can interact only through London dispersion forces. It is an atomic solid
but has properties characteristic of a molecular solid with nonpolar molecules.

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