Crystal structures

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The specific arrangement of atoms or molecules in a crystalline material, which determines its physical and chemical properties.

Crystal systems and lattices: Description of crystal structure using unit cells, and classification of crystals by their symmetries and space groups.
X-ray crystallography: Principles of X-ray diffraction for determining crystal structures, including Bragg's Law, Fourier transformation, and Patterson function analysis.
Crystal defects and imperfections: Types of point, line, and surface defects in crystals, their effects on material properties and functionalities, and strategies for controlling or exploiting them.
Crystal growth and morphology: Mechanisms of crystallization from solution, melt, or vapor phase, and factors influencing crystal growth rates, crystal habits, and crystal quality.
Crystallographic orientation and texture: Measures of crystallographic orientation and texture in polycrystalline materials, and their consequences on anisotropic properties, deformation behavior, and grain boundary interactions.
Crystal chemistry and bonding: Relationship between crystal structure and chemical composition, including concepts of coordination number, ionic radii, bond valence, and bond strengths.
Phase transitions and phase diagrams: Thermodynamic and kinetic aspects of phase transitions in solids, including solid-solid, solid-liquid, and solid-gas transformations, and construction and interpretation of phase diagrams.
Computation and modeling of crystal structures: Methods for predicting crystal structures from first principles calculations, including density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, and their applications in materials design and discovery.
Crystallographic databases and software: Resources for accessing and analyzing crystal structure data, including databases such as ICSD, CIF, and CSD, and software tools for structure visualization, manipulation, and refinement.
Applications of crystal structures in materials science: Examples of how crystal structure knowledge is used in designing and optimizing functional materials, such as catalysts, semiconductors, zeolites, and biomolecules.
Cubic: The atoms are arranged in a cube shape with equal sides.
Tetragonal: The atoms are arranged in a cube shape, but one side is elongated.
Orthorhombic: The atoms are arranged in a box shape with unequal sides.
Hexagonal: The atoms are arranged in a hexagonal shape.
Trigonal: The atoms are arranged in a triangular pyramid shape.
Monoclinic: The atoms are arranged in a skewed box shape.
Triclinic: The atoms are arranged in a skewed and distorted shape.
Amorphous: The atoms are arranged randomly without any fixed or repeating pattern.
Body-centered cubic: The atoms are arranged in a cubic shape, with an additional central atom in the center.
Face-centered cubic: The atoms are arranged in a cubic shape, with an additional atom at the center of each face.
Diamond: The atoms are arranged in a tetrahedral pattern, forming a diamond-like shape.
Laves: A type of intermetallic compound, atoms are arranged in a unique cage-like structure.
Perovskite: The atoms are arranged in a cubic structure, similar to the face-centered cubic structure but with a unique arrangement of cations and anions.
Zeolite: The atoms are arranged in a porous and cage-like structure, often used as a catalyst or to adsorb molecules.
Rutile: The atoms are arranged in a tetragonal structure, with oxygen atoms forming a distorted octahedron around a central atom.
Spinel: The atoms are arranged in a cubic shape, with a unique arrangement of cations and anions.
"In crystallography, crystal structure is a description of the ordered arrangement of atoms, ions, or molecules in a crystalline material."
"Ordered structures occur from the intrinsic nature of the constituent particles to form symmetric patterns that repeat along the principal directions of three-dimensional space in matter."
"The smallest group of particles in the material that constitutes this repeating pattern is the unit cell of the structure."
"The unit cell completely reflects the symmetry and structure of the entire crystal, which is built up by repetitive translation of the unit cell along its principal axes."
"The translation vectors define the nodes of the Bravais lattice."
"The lengths of the principal axes, or edges, of the unit cell and the angles between them are the lattice constants, also called lattice parameters or cell parameters."
"The symmetry properties of the crystal are described by the concept of space groups."
"All possible symmetric arrangements of particles in three-dimensional space may be described by the 230 space groups."
"The crystal structure and symmetry play a critical role in determining many physical properties, such as cleavage, electronic band structure, and optical transparency."
"The ordered arrangement of atoms, ions, or molecules in a crystalline material is determined by the crystal structure."
"The symmetry properties of the crystal are described by the concept of space groups."
"The unit cell completely reflects the symmetry and structure of the entire crystal."
"The lengths of the principal axes, or edges, of the unit cell and the angles between them are the lattice constants."
"The translation vectors define the nodes of the Bravais lattice."
"The unit cell is built up by repetitive translation along its principal axes."
"The crystal structure and symmetry play a critical role in determining many physical properties."
"All possible symmetric arrangements of particles in three-dimensional space may be described by the 230 space groups."
"The crystal structure and symmetry play a critical role in determining many physical properties, such as cleavage, electronic band structure, and optical transparency."
"The ordered arrangement of atoms, ions, or molecules is the fundamental feature of crystal structures."
"Ordered structures occur from the intrinsic nature of the constituent particles to form symmetric patterns that repeat along the principal directions of three-dimensional space."