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How many types of packing is their in unit cell?? Which are they??? Explain each

How many types of packing is their in unit cell?? Which are they??? Explain each

Grade:12

1 Answers

Harishwar IIT Roorkee
askIITians Faculty 50 Points
9 years ago
Close packing

The principles involved can be understood by considering the most efficient way of packing together equal-sized spheres and stacking close-packed atomic planes in three dimensions. For example, if plane A lies beneath plane B, there are two possible ways of placing an additional atom on top of layer B. If an additional layer was placed directly over plane A, this would give rise to the following series:...ABABABAB....This arrangement of atoms in a crystal structure is known as hexagonal close packing (hcp).

If, however, all three planes are staggered relative to each other and it is not until the fourth layer is positioned directly over plane A that the sequence is repeated, then the following sequence arises:...ABCABCABC...This type of structural arrangement is known as cubic close packing (ccp).

The unit cell of a ccp arrangement of atoms is the face-centered cubic (fcc) unit cell. This is not immediately obvious as the closely packed layers are parallel to the {111} planes of the fcc unit cell. There are four different orientations of the close-packed layers.

The packing efficiency can be worked out by calculating the total volume of the spheres and dividing by the volume of the cell as follows:[\frac{4 \times \frac{4}{3} \pi r^3}{16 \sqrt{2} r^3} = \frac{\pi}{3\sqrt{2}} = 0.7405]The 74% packing efficiency is the maximum density possible in unit cells constructed of spheres of only one size. Most crystalline forms of metallic elements are hcp, fcc, or bcc (body-centered cubic). The coordination number of atoms in hcp and fcc structures is 12 and its atomic packing factor (APF) is the number mentioned above, 0.74. This can be compared to the APF of a bcc structure, which is 0.68.

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