Unit Cells

Flashcards about crystal structures including simple cubic, body-centered cubic, face-centered cubic, and hexagonal close-packed.

What is a crystalline solid?

A solid with atoms organized into a repeating three-dimensional pattern.

What is the brick in the wall that the unit cell makes up?

The dimension of a crystal's smallest repeating component.

What is an amorphous solid?

A solid that has a haphazard structure where atoms are connected at random.

What does the atomic packing factor tell us?

The volume of a unit cell occupied by stuff.

What is the atomic packing factor of a simple cubic structure?

The volume of the cell is 0.52 filled with atoms.

What are neighboring atoms?

The atoms that touch each other.

How many atoms do an atom touch in body-centered cubic?

Eight.

What is the number of neighbors for face-centered cubic?

12.

How many atoms are in each hexagonal close-packed unit cell?

Six.

How many neighbors does HCP have?

12.