BONDING IN SOLIDS

AND CRYSTAL STRUCTURE

NILESH PANCHOLI
B.E. ( Mech.), M.E. (Mech.), Ph. D.
Email: [email protected]
www.nileshpancholi.com
 QUESTIONS
• Calculate the volume of an FCC unit cell in terms of the atomic radius R. Show that the
atomic packing factor of FCC unit cell is more than that of BCC
• Define: (i) Metallic Bonding (ii) Covalent Bonding (iii) Orthorhombic and Tetragonal
crystal structure
• Cu has a FCC crystal structure and a unit cell with lattice constant of 0.361 nm. What is
the interplaner spacing of d111 planes? Show one prism plane (1010) and (2110)
direction of HCP lattice.
• Find the atomic packing factor in case of FCC crystal
• If the lattice parameter of alpha iron is 286 pm what is its atomic radius?
• Calculate the no. of atoms per zinc crystal structure unit cell.
• Calculate and compare the atomic packing factor of the FCC and BCC cell units. What
role does the atomic packing factor have on creep strengths of FCC and BCC metals at
same homologous temperature?
• Al is FCC, and has an atomic radius of 0.143 nm. Calculate its lattice parameter.
• The lattice parameter of a material having FCC structure, is 0.396 nm. Determine the
length of the burger’s vector along[110] direction.
• Justify: FCC metals are often recommended for use at low temperature.
• Justify: Four octahedral sites are associated with one FCC unit cell.

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 Crystal Structure

•The building blocks of these

two are identical, but different
crystal faces are developed

• Cleaving a crystal of rocksalt

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 Crystal: Periodic Arrays of Atoms

a3
Translation Vectors
a1, a2 ,a3 a2
Atom
a1

Primitive Cell:
• Smallest building block for
the crystal structure.
• Repetition of the primitive cell
 crystal structure

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 Common Lattice Types

There are 14 lattice types; Most common types are:

• Cubic: (SC, BCC, FCC)
Li, Na, Al, K, Cr, Fe, Ir, Pt, Au etc.
• Hexagonal Closed Pack (HCP):
Mg, Co, Zn, Y, Zr, etc.
• Diamond:
C, Si, Ge, Sn (only four)

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 Three Cubic Lattices

1. Simple Cubic (SC)

a1= a2 =a3 Conventional Cell= Primitive Cell
a1  a2  a3 a3

a2
a1 Add one atom
Add one atom at the at the center of
center of the cubic each face

2. Body-Centered Cubic (BCC) 3. Face-Centered Cubic (FCC)

Conventional Cell  Primitive Cell 6
 Atomic Packing Factor
• A.P.F. is define as the ratio of total volume
of atoms (in unit cell) to the total volume of
unit cell.
A.P.F. = (No. of atoms) X (Volume of one atom)/Volume of unit cell

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• The primitive unit cell for the body-centered cubic (BCC) crystal structure
contains eight atoms on each corner of the cube and one atom in the center.
Because the volume of each corner atom is shared between adjacent cells, each
BCC cell contains two atoms.
• Each corner atom touches the center atom. A line that is drawn from one
corner of the cube through the center and to the other corner passes through 4r,
where r is the radius of an atom. By geometry, the length of the diagonal is
a√3. Therefore, the length of each side of the BCC structure can be related to
the radius of the atom by
• Knowing this and the formula for the volume of a sphere, it becomes possible
to calculate the APF as follows:

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 Primitive Cell of BCC

•Rhombohedron primitive cell

0.53a

109o28’
•Primitive Translation Vectors:
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Primitive Cell of FCC

•Kittel, P. 13

•Angle between a1, a2, a3: 60o

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Kittel p. 12

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 Diamond Structure

C, Si, Ge, a-Sn

• Add 4 atoms to a FCC

• Tetrahedral bond arrangement
• Each atom has 4 nearest neighbors and 12
12 next nearest neighbors
Hexagonal Close Packing (hcp)

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Crystal Structures of Elements Kittel, pg. 23

Notice: hcp vs. fcc in same column

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 Index System for Crystal Planes (Miller Indices)

1) Find the intercepts on the axes in terms of the lattice constants a1, a2, a3. The axes may be
those of a primitive or nonprimitive unit cell.
2) Take the reciprocals of these numbers and then reduce to three integers having the same
ratio, usually the smallest three integers. The reulst enclosed in parethesis (hkl), is called
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the index of the plane.
Crystal Planes

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Types of Microstructures

• Single Crystalline

• Polycrystalline

• Amorphous

TEM images of nanobelts by 17

Prof. Z. L. Wang
 Crystal Bonding

• van der Waals bond

• Ionic bond
• Hydrogen bond
• Metallic bond
• Covalence bond

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 van der Waals bond

•Bonding energy:
~0.01 eV (weak)
•Compared to thermal
vibration energy kBT ~
Ar Ar 0.026 eV at T = 300 K
•Examples: inert gases

+ Ar - + Ar - Dipole-dipole interaction

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 Ionic Bond

• The electron of the Na atom is

removed and attached to the Cl atom
Cl- Na+ Cl- • Bonding energy: 1-10 eV (strong)
Na+ Cl- Na+

Cl- Na+ Cl-

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 Hydrogen bond

• The electron of the H atom is

pulled toward the other atom
• Ionic in nature
•Bonding energy: ~kBT (weak)
•Examples: DNA;
F- F- intermolecular bond between
H+ water and ice
HF2- molecule

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 Metallic Bond

Positive ions in a sea of electrons

Na+ Na+

Na+ Electron sea

Na+ Na+

•Bonding energy:
~1-10 eV (strong)
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 Covalence bond H + H H H

C C
• Two atoms share a pair of electrons
C
• Bonding energy: ~1-10 eV (strong) C C
• Examples: C, Ge, Si, H2

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 Bonding Energy vs. Inter-atomic Distance
Energy

Parabolic Potential of
Harmonic Oscillator
ro Distance

Eb 1-D Array of Spring Mass System

Spring constant, g Mass, m

Equilibrium
Position
a

Deformed
Position
x n-1 xn x n+1
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