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Introduction
Neighbours envy, Owners pride, Silicon Valleys delight, a girls best friend, Miners blackjack ! Is that you?
Learning Objectives
On completion of this topic you will be able to: 1. Identify the crystal system of diamond, NaCl, ZnS and CsCl, graphite 2. Derive packing factor for diamond structures 3. Differentiate between diamond and zinc blende 4. Give minimum 2 polymorphic forms of carbon
Introduction
Most of the high density materials have close packed structures, the hcp, the fcc or modifications of the basic structures studied so far. We shall now look at some of the important modified cubic
structures. Materials that are made up of tetravalent elements, i.e the semiconductors , insulators etc are found to possess a diamond structure which is a modified FCC structure whereas ionic crystals like NaCl, KBr etc also possess a modified FCC structure, but of a different type.
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The diamond cubic structure is a characteristic of materials that have its constituent materials bound in tetrahedral bonds. Insulators such as carbon, semiconductors like Germanium, Silicon etc exhibit this crystal structure. The diamond structure is an FCC with a two atom basis. If one atom of the basis is at the FCC lattice point, say (0,0,0) the other atom of the basis is at ( a, a, a ) where a is the lattice constant of the FCC lattice. Therefore the diamond structure can be arrived at by attaching one atom to each FCC lattice point (x,y,z) and the other at a point ( (x+a/4), (y+1/4), (z+a/4) ).
An alternative way of describing the diamond structure is to as one with 2 interpenetrating FCC sublattices with one FCC penetrating upto th the body diagonal of the other. The figure given below illustrates the diamond structure. The second penetrating FCC structure can be seen by connecting the second atoms of the basis that is attached to the original FCC lattice.(shown in greenshade)
The unit cell of this new structure is taken as the unit cell of the FCC with the additional 4 atoms which are enclosed within it i.e the second atoms attached to the point A on the base, the base-center, the face-centre on the left side and the face-centre of the front face of the original FCC lattice. The figure 2 shows a the unit cell of the diamond structure with co-ordinates of each point and the
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tetrahedral bonds of the nearest neighbours. The diamond unit cell has 4 terahedral bonds as shown in the figure.
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To determine the distance between nearest neighbours one needs to estimate the distance AJ as shown in the figure below.
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The atom at J is displaced from that at A by a/4 along x-axis and a/4 along Y axis , therefore AO2 = a + a 4 4 Or
2 2
2a 2 a 2 ; = 16 8
AJ 2 =
a 2 a 2 3a 2 + = 8 16 16
3 a = 2r ; where r is the radius of the atoms. 4
3 a 8
AJ =
Volume occupied by the atoms in the unit cell,v = no. of atoms in the unit cell x volume of an atom
=8 x
Volume of the unit cell, V = a3 Therefore. Packing fraction of diamond unit cell =
4 3 4 3 3 3 3 a r = 8 x 3 a 3 = 3 3 8 16
v 3 = = 0.34 V 16
Thus the diamond structure is found to be the most loosely packed structure. Diamond (made of carbon atoms) which is the hardest material also has the smallest packing fraction.
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Zinc sulfide has a lattice constant of 0.596nm . The sulfide ions are quite large (atomic radius 184 pm) relative to the size of the zinc ions (74 pm). In the diamond structure sulfide ion (shown in grey) occupies the FCC lattice points with the Zinc ions(shown in red) is the other atom of the basis. When compared to diamond saphalerite structure is more soft. Thus we can see that the strength of the tetrahedral bond determines the hardness of the material.
Zinc sulfide, with addition of few ppm of suitable activator, is used as phosphor in many applications, from cathode ray tubes through x-ray screens to glow in the dark products. Copper provides long glow time and the familiar glow-in-the-dark greenish color. Zinc sulfide is also used as an infrared optical material, transmitting from visible wavelengths to over 12 micrometres. It can be used planar as an optical window or shaped into a lens.
Graphite Structure
Graphite is an allotropic form of carbon . In case of graphite the carbon atoms are arranged in regular hexagons in flat parallel layers and each carbon atom covalently bonds with three atoms in a this hexagonal layer. The remaining electron is delocalized between the planes forming a weak bond between the parallel layers. Since the bonding between these parallel layers are weak, the layers are easily separable from each other and is the cause for softness and lubricating action of graphite. The
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delocalized electron results in the moderate conductivity of graphite in comparison to carbon in diamond structure. The figure given below shows the graphite structure.
The spacing between the carbon atoms in the hexagonal layer is about 1.42A and the spacing between the parallel layers is 3.4.
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d) /32
3. Fill in the blank with the right answer. In spite of having the smallest packing fraction, carbon in diamond structure is hard because of ____________________________________________. 4. The crystal structure of graphite is a) HCP b) FCC c) BCC 5. Allotropic forms of carbon are a)Saphalerite b) diamond c)Wurtzite Check the correct answers on page 10.
d)diamond cube
d)graphite
e)Fullrene
Summary
On completion of this topic you have learned that: 1. Diamond structure is an FCC with 2 atom basis.One atom at FCC lattice point and other (a/4,a/4,a/4) from it. It can also be thought of as having 2 FCC sub-lattices. Example of materials with diamond structure: Germanium, silicon, carbon, etc 2. Saphalerite or Zinc blende has diamond structure but has a basis of 2 different elements
Example ZnS, CuCl, GaAs,InSb etc. bigger atoms occupy FCC lattice points with the samller atom of the basis at the a/4,a/4,a/4 positions away from its pair. 3. NaCl is an FCC cryatal with 2 atom basis. One atom at FCC lattice and other at (a/2,0,0) from it.
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4. CsCl is an SC with 2 atom basis.One atom(Cl) in the SC lattice and other(Cs) at a distance of a/2,a/2,a/2) from it. 5. Graphite ia an allotropic form of carbon with carbon atoms arranged in parallel hexagonal layers with each carbon atom forming covalent bonds with 3 nearest neighbours and one electron delocalized and shared between parallel layers.
Activity
Tabulate the hardness of the materials and the bond strengths for the crystals starting from that of C down to Pb in the periodic table and their crystal structures. What do you infer from the study.
Suggested Reading
1. Solid State Physics by Kittel 2. Engineering Physics-I by P.K.Palaniswamy
Answers to CYU.
1.d 2.b 3.strength of its tetrahedral bond 4.e 5. b,d&e
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