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Homework 2 - Solution

This document contains the solutions to a homework assignment on ceramic materials. It discusses the minimum cation to anion radius ratios for coordination numbers of 6 and 3. It also calculates the ratio of sizes between the tetrahedral and octahedral interstitial sites. The document finds the coordination numbers of Ti4+ and O2- ions in TiO2 using Pauling's rules. It also analyzes the cubic close packing of oxygen ions to determine the number of tetrahedral and octahedral sites per unit cell and discusses how filling these sites leads to different oxide structures like MO2, M2O3, and MO. The document suggests researching properties and applications of a ceramic material of interest from sources like Wikipedia.

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199 views

Homework 2 - Solution

This document contains the solutions to a homework assignment on ceramic materials. It discusses the minimum cation to anion radius ratios for coordination numbers of 6 and 3. It also calculates the ratio of sizes between the tetrahedral and octahedral interstitial sites. The document finds the coordination numbers of Ti4+ and O2- ions in TiO2 using Pauling's rules. It also analyzes the cubic close packing of oxygen ions to determine the number of tetrahedral and octahedral sites per unit cell and discusses how filling these sites leads to different oxide structures like MO2, M2O3, and MO. The document suggests researching properties and applications of a ceramic material of interest from sources like Wikipedia.

Uploaded by

khoagle
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Homework 2 - Solution
1. (a) Show that the minimum cation/anion radius ratio for a coordination number of
6 is 0.414.
(b) Repeat part (a) for coordination number 3.
(c) Which interstitial site is larger, the tetrahedral or the octahedral? Calculate
the ratio of the sizes for the tetrahedral and octahedral sites.

(c) The octahedral site with an ionic radius ratio of 0.414 is larger than that of the
tetrahedral site with an ionic radius ratio of 0.225. The volumetric size ratio is

r
then oct
rtetra

0.414

6.3
0.225
3

2. Find the ionic radii of Ti4+ and O2- from your textbook, and apply the Paulings 1st
and 2nd rules in predicting the coordination number for the cation and the anion,
respectively.
Sol.
The ionic radii of Ti4+ and O2- are 0.60 and 1.40 , respectively. Therefore,
rc rTi 4 0.60

0.43
ra rO 2 1.40

There should exist a polyhedron with 6 anions (O2-) surrounding 1 cation (Ti4+)
according to the 1st Paulings rule. For maintaining the charge neutrality in the
polyhedron (i.e., the 2nd Paulings rule), we obtain
(6)(O 2 )(

1
) (1)(Ti 4 )
CN

1
) (4)
CN
CN 3
(12)(

Therefore, the coordination numbers for the cations (Ti4+) and anions (O2-) are 6
and 3, respectively. Note that the coordination number for the anions (O2-) can
also be solved alternatively by recognizing that the stoichiometric form of TiO2 is
1:2 in molar ratio. Since 6 O2- ions are required to form a polyhedron for
surrounding 1 Ti4+ ion, the number of Ti4+ ions for 1 O2- ion must therefore be one
half of 6 in order to maintain the stoichiometry.
3. Starting with the cubic close packing of oxygen ions:
1. How many tetrahedral and how many octahedral sites are there per unit cell?
2. What is the ratio of octahedral sites to oxygen ions? What is the ratio of
tetrahedral sites to oxygen ions?
3. What oxide would you get if one-half of the octahedral sites are filled?
Two-thirds? All?
4. Locate all the tetrahedral sites and fill them up with cations. What structure
do you obtain? If the anions are oxygen, what must be the charge on the
cation for charge neutrality to be maintained?
Sol.
(a) 8 tetrahedral and 4 octahedral
(b) Octahedral sites to oxygen ions = 1:1; tetrahedral sites to oxygen ions = 2:1

(c) 1/2 filled = MO2; 2/3 filled = M2O3; and all filled = MO
(d) M2O (anti-fluorite); charge = 1+
4. We have mentioned in class about ceramic materials with crystalline structures of
rocksalt, fluorite, anti-fluorite, zincblende, wurtzite, etc. Try to use any search
engines available on the web, and find more details of ONE ceramic material that
interests you. Give me what kind of structure it is, specific properties and
applications about this particular ceramics.
Suggestions
There are plenty of examples that can be found from the web for almost all
existing ceramics. My favorite website (or recommendation) is Wikipedia (
), which is an on-line encyclopedia written by experts from all over the world
in particular area of interests.

(Any queries about the solution or if you have any difficulties in


understanding my lecture, feel free to come in and talk with me
during the office hours.)

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