Crystal

Structure of Solids

Solid materials may be classified according to the regularity with which atoms or ions are
arranged with respect to one another.

A crystalline material has a repea9ng or periodic array over large atomic distances—that is,
long-range order exists, such that upon solidifica9on, the atoms will posi9on themselves in
a repe99ve three-dimensional pa?ern, in which each atom is bonded to its nearest
neighbor atoms.

Some9mes the term la@ce is used in the context of crystal structures; in this sense la@ce
means a three-dimensional array of points coinciding with atom posi9ons
(or sphere centers).
In describing crystal structures, it is oFen convenient to subdivide the structure into small
repeat en99es called unit cells.

The la@ce parameters which describe the size and shape of the unit cell, include the
dimensions of the sides of the unit cell and the angles between the sides.

The crystal structure found for many metals has a unit cell of cubic geometry, with atoms
located at each of the corners and the centers of all the cube faces. It is aptly called
the face-centered cubic (FCC) crystal structure.
Another common metallic crystal structure also has a cubic unit cell with atoms located
at all eight corners and a single atom at the cube center. This is called a body-centered
cubic (BCC) crystal structure.

Some metals, as well as nonmetals, may have more than one crystal structure, a
phenomenon known as polymorphism.

Certain planes of atoms in a crystal are significant; for example, metals deform along planes
of atoms that are most 9ghtly packed together. Miller indices are used as a shorthand
nota9on to iden9fy these important planes.
 Informa9on about the crystal structure of a material can be obtained using X-ray
diffrac9on.

When a beam of X-rays impinges on a solid material, a por9on of this beam is sca?ered in
all direc9ons

The necessary condi9ons for diffrac9on of x-rays by a periodic arrangement of atoms are
given by Bragg’s Law
Kristal malzemelerin atomik düzenlenmesi 7 genel kristal sistemiyle tanımlanır.

Aynı Miller indisli iki komşu paralel düzlem arasındaki mesafe düzlemler arası mesafe
olarak adlandırılır.

Bir malzemenin birim hacminin kütlesi yoğunluk olarak tanımlanır.

Technical Vocabulary

structure size diffrac9on mass

la@ce corner beam volume

dimension center ray density

sphere body-centered cubic direc9on distance

unit cell face-centered cubic law adjacent

angel plane interplaner

Exercise: Fill the gaps in the text with words from the box in their correct form. Some terms
are used more than once.

adhesion; design; horizontal; mass;

microscopic; molecule; release; residue;
selfcleaning; s9cky; surface; underside;
ver9cal
The Gecko
The photograph shows the ……………………………….………. of a gecko, a harmless tropical lizard, and
its toes. Researchers worldwide are studying the animal’s adhesive system. The scien9sts want
to learn from nature how to ……………………………….………. dry adhesives such as geckos apply when
moving their feet over smooth surfaces. The animals achieve high adhesion and fric9on forces
required for rapid ……………………………….………. (running up walls) and inverted (running along the
underside of ……………………………….………. surfaces) mo9on, since their ……………………………….……….
feet will cling to virtually any surface. Yet they can easily and quickly release the s9cky pads
under their toes to make the next step. A gecko can support its body ……………………………….……….
with a single toe, because it has an extremely large number of ……………………………….………. small
ordered fiber bundles on each toe pad. When these fibrous structures come in contact with a
surface, weak forces of a?rac9on, i.e. van der Waals forces, are established between hair
……………………………….………. and molecules on the surface. The fact that these fibers are so small
and so numerous explains why the animal grips ……………………………….………. so 9ghtly.