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Solid State Chemistry

The document discusses key concepts in solid state chemistry including: 1) The unit cell is the smallest group of atoms that repeats in 3D to form the crystal lattice and is described by lattice parameters and points. 2) A primitive cell is the smallest possible unit cell having lattice points only at vertices, and can be 2D or 3D. 3) Crystalline solids form when interatomic forces exceed thermal forces, restricting atom mobility, and can be ionic, covalent, metallic or van der Waals solids.

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Catherine Paschal
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31 views

Solid State Chemistry

The document discusses key concepts in solid state chemistry including: 1) The unit cell is the smallest group of atoms that repeats in 3D to form the crystal lattice and is described by lattice parameters and points. 2) A primitive cell is the smallest possible unit cell having lattice points only at vertices, and can be 2D or 3D. 3) Crystalline solids form when interatomic forces exceed thermal forces, restricting atom mobility, and can be ionic, covalent, metallic or van der Waals solids.

Uploaded by

Catherine Paschal
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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Solid State Chemistry

Important concepts
Prepared by Catherine Paschal
Mwenge Catholic University

Catherine Paschal @MWECAU 1


SOLID STATE CHEMISTRY
• Unit cell is the smallest group of atoms that has the
overall symmetry of a crystal, and from which the
entire lattice can be built up by repetition ion 3D.
• Unit cell is the smallest repetitive unit of a crystal
lattice.
• Described by using lattice parameters and lattice points.
• Lattice parameters are lengths between edges of unit
cell (a, b & c) and angles of the unit cell (alpha, beta,
gamma).
• Lattice points are atoms, molecules or ions from which
the lattice is made of.
• A unit cell has a geometry known as parallelepiped (a
3D figure formed from 6 parallelograms).
SOLID STATE CHEMISTRY
• A primitive cell is the smallest possible unit cell of a
lattice having lattice points only at each of its eight
vertices.
• It is the smallest form of unit cells.
• It is a structural reperesentation of a lattice that can be
used to characterize a lattice.
• It can be drawn in either 2D or 3D form.
• There are two types of primitive unit cells: 2D and 3D.
• The 2D primitive cells are parallelograms: there can be
orthogonal angles (right angles), equal lengths or both.
• The 3D primitive cells are parallelepiped: has
orthogonal angles equal lengths or both.
SOLID STATE CHEMISTRY
• The primitive cell may be defined as a geometrical shape
which, when repeated indefinitely in three dimensions, will
fill all space and is the equivalent of one atom.
• The unit cell differs from the primitive cell in that it is not
restricted to being the equivalent of one atom.
• Primitive cells are drawn with lattice points at all corners,
and each primitive cell contains the equivalent of one atom.
• For instance, a simple cubic unit cell has an atom at each
corner. However, at any of these given corners, this atom
must be shared with seven other identical cubes which fill
the volume surrounding this point. Thus there is effectively
only 1/8 of the atom which can be assigned to that
particular unit cell.
• Since there are eight corners in a cube, there is the
equivalent of one atom, and thus the primitive cell and unit
cell coincide.
SOLID STATE CHEMISTRY
THE NATURE OF CRYSTALLINE SOLIDS
• In an assembly of atoms or molecules a solid phase
is formed whenever the interatomic
(intermolecular) attractive forces significantly
exceed the disruptive thermal forces and thus
restrict the mobility of atoms, forcing them into
more-or-less fixed positions.
• All solids may be subdivided into:
(a) Ionic solids (NaCl)
(b) Covalent solids (Diamond)
(c) Metallic solids (Fe, Ni, etc.)
(d) Van der Waals solids (ice, solid He)
SOLID STATE CHEMISTRY
• To understand the external appearance of the solid
state it is necessary to consider the formation of
solids from different phases.
• Solids, for example, are formed upon cooling of
liquids (melts) - by freezing or solidification; this
solidification process normally proceeds in total
confinement and the resulting “cast” structure will
have an external appearance which reflects in detail
the confining geometry (and not the internal
order).
• Moreover, depending on solidification conditions,
the solid body may be either a single crystal or
polycrystalline.
SOLID STATE CHEMISTRY
• Polycrystalline solids (in excess of 95% of the solid
state encountered) may be thought of as an
assembly of microscopic single crystals with
random orientation held together like a maze
structure by the interwoven irregular shapes of the
individual crystals.
• a crystal structure is nothing more than an orderly
array of atoms or molecules.

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