5: Order in Solids

No description yet. This curated deck is ready for daily study.

Total cards: 24•Content version: v4•Public deck•Updated: 8/1/2026

Card preview (24)

Front (Question)

in solids, atoms or molecules tend to have what kind of order? what is the structure called ?

Back (Answer)

tend to order in a closed packed structure that minimizes energy. this is called a crystal.

Front (Question)

what are non-crystalline solids called

Back (Answer)

amorphous

Front (Question)

describe amorphous solids

Back (Answer)

non dense, random packing

Front (Question)

describe crystalline solids

Back (Answer)

dense, regular packing

Front (Question)

amorphous or crystalline solids have lower energy ? why?

Back (Answer)

crystalline. dense, regular packed structures have lower energy.

Front (Question)

quartz is crystalline or amorphous ?

Back (Answer)

crystaline

Front (Question)

glass is crystalline or amorphous

Back (Answer)

amorphous

Front (Question)

amorphous solids generally have what type of bonds ? what type of material is common

Back (Answer)

directional bonds ceramics are common

Front (Question)

example of compounds that can be both crystalline and amorphous. why ?

Back (Answer)

sio2 crystalline quartz or amorphous glass. solidification conditions (purity, pressure, cooling rate) decide

#10

Front (Question)

glass describes what

Back (Answer)

amorphous solids

#11

Front (Question)

single crystals can imply ___ range order

Back (Answer)

very long

#12

Front (Question)

poly crystals are

Back (Answer)

several crystals packed together

#13

Front (Question)

in solids what decides packing structure

Back (Answer)

the way that atoms can be arranged to minimize empty space the most dense is generally the lowest energy and thus preferred

#14

Front (Question)

how do metallic crystal structures tend to be packed ? why ?

Back (Answer)

densely packed reasons: - typically only one element, so atoms have equal radius - metallic bonding is not directional - nearest neighbour distances tend to be small in order to lower bond energy - electron cloud shields cores from each other

#15

Front (Question)

what type of material has the simplest crystal structure

Back (Answer)

metals

#16

Front (Question)

describe unit cell

Back (Answer)

smallest repetitive volume which contains the complete pattern of a crystal

#17

Front (Question)

metallic cube unit cell is characterized but that parameters

Back (Answer)

a: cube edge length (lattice constant) R: atomic radius atomic packing factor (APF) APF = vol atoms in unit cell/total unit cell volume

#18

Front (Question)

coordination number

Back (Answer)

number of first touching neighbours in a hard sphere model (for pure metals all same radius)

#19

Front (Question)

name common metallic crystal structures

Back (Answer)

• simple cubic • body entered cubic • face centred cubic • hexagonal close packed

#20

Front (Question)

review unit cell from notes for all structures

Back (Answer)

#21

Front (Question)

FCC vs HCP

Back (Answer)

depends on the position of the third layer of atoms. ABCABC = fcc (stacking planes are oriented in plane (111)) ABABAB = hcp

#22

Front (Question)

voids in simple cubic unit cell

Back (Answer)

two interpenetrating simple cubic

#23

Front (Question)

FCC voids

Back (Answer)

two types of voids: 4 octahedral (CN = 6), 8 tetrahedral (CN = 4) (in a unit cell)

#24

Front (Question)

describe rock salt structure

Back (Answer)

FCC structure with all octahedral voids occupied by the other atom. the structure is symmetrical and can be described as two interpenetrating FCC structures.