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Solids: Amorphous and Crystalline Materials

Crystallography is the science of determining the atomic arrangements within crystal structures. Crystals are solids with atoms arranged in a definite, regular repeating pattern. Prior to 1910, crystallography was studied mainly by geologists and mineralogists, but the discovery of X-ray diffraction led to a powerful new method for exploring atomic arrangements within crystals using Bragg's law. Crystalline solids have long-range order and periodicity in their atomic structures, which gives them distinct properties such as sharp melting points and anisotropic physical properties depending on direction.

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25 views

Solids: Amorphous and Crystalline Materials

Crystallography is the science of determining the atomic arrangements within crystal structures. Crystals are solids with atoms arranged in a definite, regular repeating pattern. Prior to 1910, crystallography was studied mainly by geologists and mineralogists, but the discovery of X-ray diffraction led to a powerful new method for exploring atomic arrangements within crystals using Bragg's law. Crystalline solids have long-range order and periodicity in their atomic structures, which gives them distinct properties such as sharp melting points and anisotropic physical properties depending on direction.

Uploaded by

Catherine Paschal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Thus, the science of determining the arrangements of atoms in the structure of the

crystal came to be known as Crystallography. This word is made of crystal and graph.
The crystal in Greek means cold drop or frozen drop. The word "Graph" in Greek means
‘I write’. Prior to 1910, the crystallography was a subject of interest mainly to geologists
and mineralogists, After 1910, the discovery of diffraction of X-rays by crystals led to the
development of a powerful method for the exploration of the internal arrangements of
atoms in the crystals.

Hence, we shall study the physics of solids dealing with the study of crystals and of
electrons in crystals using. Bragg’s law in this chapter. The crystallography is a branch of
physics, which deals with the study of all possible types of crystals and the physical
properties of crystalline solids by the determination of their actual structure by using X-
rays, neutron beams and electron beams.

SOLIDS: AMORPHOUS AND CRYSTALLINE MATERIALS

All solids have the property of incompressibility, rigidity and mechanical strength. Many
atoms come closer together to form solid. The elementary particles in the atoms interact
with each other resulting in a change in the behaviour. This behaviour of solid may be
quite different from the behaviour of individual atoms. The nature of atoms, their
internal structures and the inter atomic forces and manner of arrangements of atoms
determine the formation of a solid.

The solids have been classified into two categories based on X-ray diffraction studies

(i) Crystalline solids

(ii) Amorphous solids

Crystalline Solids: When the constituent atoms of a solid are arranged in a definite,
regular and repeated geometric pattern throughout the entire three-dimensional
network of the crystal, then the solid is called a crystalline solid.

Rock salt, quartz, mica, sugar, calcite, alum, ice, methanol, copper sulphate, sulphur and
diamond are some examples of crystalline solids.

The properties of crystalline solids are

(i) In crystalline solids, the constituent atoms, ions or the molecules are arranged in a
definite regular geometric pattern.

(ii) Crystalline solids possess definite geometric shape.

(iii) The potential energy of the configuration of the constituent particles is minimum in
the crystalline solids i.e. they are found in stable state.

(iv) There is a long range order in the structure of the crystalline solids.

(v) Periodicity in the arrangement of atoms, ions or molecules extends over many million
atomic diameters.
(vi) Crystalline solids have sharp melting points i.e. they suddenly convert into liquid
state at a definite temperature.

(vii) Crystalline solids are anisotropic i.e. their physical properties like electrical
conductivity, thermal conductivity, thermal expansion, refractive index, mechanic
strength etc. are different in different directions.

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