NAT SCI 1- CHEMISTRY FOR ENGINEERS

Module 2
The Chemistry of Engineering Materials

Welcome back! You are now on our second module. This module
consists of four lessons which provide you backgrounds on the
Chemistry of Engineering Materials.

Upon completion of this module, you are expected to be able to:

Explain the molecular structure of crystals, metals, polymers, and
nanomaterial.
Describe the properties and applications of different types of engineering
materials.

To ensure the achievement of the learning outcomes, this module is

organized into four (4) lessons listed as follows:
Lesson 1: Basic Concepts of Crystal Structure
Lesson 2: Metals
Lesson 3: Polymers
Lesson 4: Engineered Nanomaterial

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Lesson 1: Basic Concepts of Crystal Structure

Learning Outcomes:
Having successfully completed this lesson, you will be able to:
✓ Describe the difference in atomic/molecular structure between crystalline
and non-crystalline materials.
✓ Illustrate unit cells for face-centered cubic, body-centered cubic, and
hexagonal close-packed crystal structures.
✓ Classify a unit cell based on 7 crystal system.
✓ Determine the coordination number of a common crystal structure.
✓ Describe how face-centered cubic and hexagonal close-packed crystal
structures may be generated by the stacking of close-packed planes of
atoms.
✓ Calculate the atomic packing factor of a unit cell.
✓ Compute the densities for metals having face-centered cubic and body-
centered cubic crystal structures given their unit cell dimensions.

Time Frame: 2 weeks

Introduction

The lesson is devoted to the structure of materials, specifically, to some

of the arrangements that may be assumed by atoms in the solid state. Within this
framework, concepts of crystallinity and amorphous are introduced. For crystalline
solids, the notion of crystal structure is presented, specified in terms of a unit cell.
The three common crystal structures found in metals are then detailed, along with
the coordination number, packing efficiency and the theoretical density of the
crystal.

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Activity # 2.1A: Identification

Instruction:

✓ Classify the following substances as either

crystalline or amorphous solid. Write your answers in the spaces
provided.

1. Table salt 4. Glass 7. Rubber

2. Sugar 5. Plastic 8. Ceramics
3. Gels 6. Diamond 9. Iron

Classifications
of Solid
Materials

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Activity # 2.1B: Checking Insight

Instruction:
✓ Answer the following questions below. Write your
answers in the space provided.

Questions:

1. What is the difference between atomic structure and crystal structure?

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

2. How are crystalline solids differ from noncrystalline (amorphous) solids?

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

3. Explain how atoms arranged in a crystal structure.

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

4. What is the simplest repeating unit of a crystal?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

5. What are the packing efficiencies of simple cubic, body-centered, face-

centered, and hexagonal closed pack structure?
_______________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

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Crystal structure is one of the most significant aspects of materials

science and engineering, as many properties of solid materials are directly related
to their crystal structures.

It is noted in the first description of the microscopic view of matter, that the
atoms or molecules in a solid or liquid are packed together much more closely than
they would be in a gas. When considering how those atoms or molecules are
arranged into a solid, they may be classified according to the regularity with which
atoms or ions are arranged with respect to one another. Thus, solids have two
basic classifications, they may be similar on the outer form, but are extremely
diverse from the inside.

Basic Classifications of Solid and their Characteristics

❖ Crystalline (also known as Crystal)
➢ Comes from the ancient Greek word krustallos, which means both
ice and crystal.
➢ It is the state of solid material in which the atoms, ions, or molecules
are situated in a repeating or periodic array over large atomic
distances.
➢ It is characterized by the presence of a long-range order, such that
upon solidification, the atoms will position themselves in a
repeating geometric arrangement, in which each atom is bonded to
its nearest-neighbor atoms.
➢ Diamond, quartz, and table salt are some of the examples.
❖ Non-crystalline (sometimes describe as Amorphous)
➢ Amorphous comes from the two Greek words a (without)
and morphé (shape), which together mean shapeless or without
form.
➢ It is the solid materials that lack a systematic and regular
arrangement of atoms or ions over relatively large atomic distances.
➢ Has an atomic structure resembles that of a liquid.
➢ Characterized by the absence of long-range order.

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➢ Amorphous solids when cut break into uneven pieces because of

the random and disorderly arranged atoms, ions, or molecules.
➢ Rubber, glass, and several polymers belong to this classification.

Figure 2.1: The entities of a solid phase may be arranged in a regular, repeating

pattern (crystalline solids) or randomly (amorphous).

Some of the properties of crystalline solids depend on the crystal structure of the
material.
What is Crystal Structure?

➢ It is the way atoms, ions, or molecules are spatially arranged in a

crystalline material.

➢ It is defined in terms of the unit cell geometry and the atom

positions within the unit cell.

➢ Sometimes the term lattice is used in the context of crystal

structures; lattice means a three-dimensional array of points
coinciding with atom positions (or sphere centers).

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When describing crystalline

structures, atoms (or ions)
are thought of as being solid
spheres having well-defined
diameters.
This is termed the atomic
hard-sphere model in which
Figure 2.2: An example of the hard-sphere
spheres representing model for the atomic arrangement Face-
nearest-neighbor atoms centered cubic (FCC)

touch one another. Source: Callister & Rethwisch (2010).

Materials Science and Engineering: An
Introduction 8th Edition. John Wiley &
Sons, Inc.
What is Unit Cell?

➢ Is used to describe crystal structure.

➢ Is the smallest portion of a crystal lattice that shows the three-dimensional
pattern of the entire crystal.
➢ Is the basic structural unit or building block of the crystal structure and
defines the crystal structure by virtue of its geometry and the atom
positions within.
➢ The geometry of the unit cell is defined as a parallelepiped, providing six
lattice parameters taken as the lengths of the cell edges (a, b, c) and the
angles between them (α, β, γ).
Figure 2.3 below illustrates the relationship of a unit cell to the entire
crystal lattice. The lengths (a, b, c) of the principal axes, or edges, of the unit
cell and the angles (α, β, γ) between them are the lattice constants, also
called lattice parameters. An xyz coordinate system is established with its
origin at one of the unit cell corners; each of the x, y, and z axes coincides with
one of the three parallelepiped edges that extend from this corner.

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Lattice
Points

Figure 2.3: Relationship of a unit cell to the whole crystal lattice. A unit cell with x, y,
and z coordinate axes, showing axial lengths (a, b, and c) and interaxial
angles (α, β, γ)

On this basis there are seven different possible combinations of a, b,

and c, and α, β, γ, each of which represents a distinct crystal system, a
method of classifying crystalline substances based on their unit cell.

Seven Crystal Systems

Rhombohedral
Cubic Hexagonal Triclinic

Tetragonal Orthorhombic
2 Monoclinic

The lattice parameter relationships and unit cell sketches for each
crystal system are represented in Table 2.1. The cubic system, for which a, b,
c and α= β = γ= 900, has the greatest degree of symmetry. The least symmetry
is displayed by the triclinic system, because a≠ b ≠ c and α ≠ β ≠ γ.

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Table 2.1: Lattice Parameter Relationships and Figures Showing Unit Cell
Geometries for the Seven Crystal Systems

Source: Callister & Rethwisch (2010). Materials Science and Engineering: An

Introduction., 8th Edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. United States of America.

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Three Types of Unit Cell

• The atoms are present only at the

corners.The edge length of the cube
becomes equal to the diameter of one
Simple Cubic unit cell or atom, allowing the corner atoms to touch
primitive cubic, (SC) one another.
• An atom at the corner is equally shared
by 8 unit cells. So the contribution of one
atom to a unit cell is 1/8.

• There is one atom at the centre along

with 8 corner atoms.
Body-centred cubic (BCC) • This corner atom is shared by 8 unit cell
and the atom at the centre is not a shared
one.

• One atom is located at each corner of the

cube, and additional atoms are placed at
the center of each of the six faces of the
Face-centred cubic (FCC) cube.
• The atoms at the faces are equally shared
by two unit cell. Corner atoms by 8 unit
cells.

Figure 2.4: Types of Unit Cell. Each of these arrangements repeats throughout the
crystal. All the atoms in each of these structures are identical; different
colors are used only to help you to see the different positions in the lattice.

Source: Brown and Holmes (2012). Chemistry for Engineering, 2nd Ed. Cengage Learning
Asia Pte Ltd

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How many atoms are contained in the unit cell?

To answer this, we need to realize that an individual atom is frequently

shared between multiple unit cells. The atoms on the faces, for example, will be in
the unit cell that we are looking at as well as the adjacent one. Each of the corner
atoms will appear in a total of eight-unit cells because the corners of eight cubes
would meet if we were to stack the unit cells up like blocks. That gives us the
following result:

For Simple Cubic Unit Cell:

1
atom at 8
8
corners
# atoms per unit cell
= 1/8 (8 corners)
= 1 atom

For Body-Centered Cubic Unit Cell:

1
atom at 8
8
corners
# atoms per unit cell
= 1/8 (8 corners) + 1 atom
1 atom
= 2 atoms

For Face- Centered Cubic Unit Cell:

1
atom at 8
8
corners # atoms per unit cell
= 1/8 (8 corners) + ½ (6 faces)
= 4 atoms

1
atom at 6
2
faces

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What is Coordination Number?

▪ It is one of the characteristics of a crystal structure.
▪ It refers to the number of nearest neighbours to an atom or ion. For
metals, each atom has the same number of nearest-neighbour or
touching atoms.

Simple Cubic (SC)

• The centers of eight identical particles define the corners of a cube.

The particles touch along the cube edges but they do not touch
diagonally along the cube faces or through its center.
• The coordination number for the SC crystal structure is 6: four in
its own layer, one in the layer above, and one in the layer below.

Figure 2.5: An atom in a simple cubic lattice structure contacts six other atoms, so it
has a coordination number of six.

Source: https://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]:EWNgknft@11/Lattice-Structures-
in-Crystalline-Solids

Body -Centered Cubic (BCC)

• Identical atoms lie at each corner and in the center of the cube.
Those at the corners do not touch each other, but they all touch
the one in the center.
• Each atom is surrounded by eight nearest neighbours, four above
and four below, so the coordination number for the BCC crystal
structure is 8.

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Figure 2.6: Body- Centered Cubic, atoms in a specific layer do not touch each other. Each atom
touches four atoms in the layer above it and four atoms in the layer below it.

Source: https://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]:EWNgknft@11/Lattice-Structures-
in-Crystalline-Solids

Face -Centered Cubic (FCC)

• Identical atoms lie at each corner and in the center of each face but not
in the center of the cube. The atoms at the corners touch those in the
faces but not each other.
• The coordination number is 12; the front face atom has four corner
nearest-neighbour atoms surrounding it, four face atoms that are in
contact from behind, and four other equivalent face atoms residing in
the next unit cell to the front, which is not shown.

Figure 2.7: A face-centered cubic solid has atoms at the corners and, as the name implies,
at the centers of the faces of its unit cells.
Source: https://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]:EWNgknft@11/Lattice-Structures-
in-Crystalline-Solids

Note:
For particle of the same size, the higher the coordination number is, the
greater the number of particles in each volume.

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Arrangement of Atoms in a Crystalline Structure

Unit cells result from the ways atom pack together. Since atoms can be
thought of as spheres, arranging them into a crystalline solid is loosely like stacking
a collection of marbles into a box. It is intuitively clear that no matter how we
arrange the marbles in the box, there will always be some gaps between them; the
spheres can never completely fill the volume of the box. But it should also be clear
that the amount of empty space among the marbles could be minimized by
carefully arranging them.
We can illustrate the differences in the way the balls—or atoms—may be
packed by using a two-dimensional model, as shown in Figure 2.8. It is easy to see
that the gaps can be reduced if the rows of marbles are offset from one another.
The marbles in the picture on the left are arranged in a very orderly pattern,
but significant gaps remain. If our aim is to place as many marbles as possible into
a given area, we would do better by staggering the rows, as shown in the right-
hand panel(a). Both pictures are the same size, but the arrangement on the right
(b) allows more marbles to fit in that area. It is easy to see that the gaps can be
reduced if the rows of marbles are offset from one another.

a. Square Packing b. Hexagonal Packing

Figure 2.8: Two-dimensional model of packing atoms

Source: Brown and Holmes (2012). Chemistry for Engineering, 2nd Ed.
Cengage Learning Asia Pte Ltd

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➢ Simple cubic Unit Cell

• In this type of a cell, the first layer of spheres is arranged in vertical
and horizontal rows to form large diamond-shaped spaces. If we
place the next layer of spheres directly above the first, we obtain an
arrangement based on the simple cubic unit cell. This is illustrated in
Figure 2.9 below.

2nd Layer

1st Layer

Figure 2.9: A primitive cubic unit cell (a) open structure (b) space-filling structure
(c) actual portions of atoms belonging to one unit cell.

Source: https://ciet.nic.in/moocspdf/Chemistry03/lech_10102_etext.pdf

➢ Body-Centered Cubic unit Cell

• Arrange by placing the second layer directly above the first and use
space more efficiently by placing it on the diamond shaped-spaces
in the first layer. Then we pack the third layer onto the diamond-
shaped spaces in the second, which makes the first- and third-layers
line up vertically.

Figure 2.10: A body-centred cubic unit cell (a) open structure (b) space filling
structure (c) actual portions of atoms belonging to one unit cell.
Source: https://ciet.nic.in/moocspdf/Chemistry03/lech_10102_etext.pdf

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➢ Close-Packed Crystal Structures

Two types of close packed structures:

Cubic Close-Packing (CCP)

is often referred to as Hexagonal Close-
Packing (HCP)
Face-Centered Cubic

Note:
The two arrangements differ in the way that the layers line up with one
another.
• The cubic structure is said to feature an “a, b, c, a, b, c . . .” stacking
pattern, whereas
• the hexagonal structure has an “a, b, a, b, . . .” pattern.
Both structures occupy roughly 74% of the available space, which is the
most efficient packing of equal-sized spheres or atoms.
• Close-packed structures (both ccp and hcp) have coordination number of
12

Layer c
Layer b
Layer a

Figure 2.11: Two ways of stacking spheres. The structure on left is called cubic close-
packing and on the right is called hexagonal close-packing.
Source: Brown and Holmes (2012). Chemistry for Engineering, 2nd Ed. Cengage Learning
Asia Pte Ltd

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Metallic Crystal Structures

Three relatively simple crystal structures are found for most of the common
metals:

Face- Body- Centered

Centered Cubic (FCC) Hexagonal
Cubic (FCC) Close-Packed
(HCP)

Table 2.2: Atomic Radii and Crystal Structures for 16 Metals

Crystal Atomic Metal Crystal Atomic
Metal
Structure Crystal Structure Crystal
Radius Radius
(nm) (nm)

FCC 0.1431 Molybdenum BCC 0.1363

Aluminum
HCP 0.1490 Nickel FCC 0.1246
Cadmium
BCC 0.1249 Platinum FCC 0.1387
Chromium
HCP 0.1253 Silver FCC 0.1445
Cobalt
FCC 0.1278 Tantalum BCC 0.1430
Copper
FCC 0.1442 Titanium HCP 0.1445
Gold
BCC 0.1241 Tungsten BCC 0.1371
Iron
FCC 0.1750 Zinc HCP 0.1332
Lead
Source: Callister & Rethwisch (2010). Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction. 8th
Edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. United States of America.

A nanometer (nm) equals 109 m; to convert from nanometers to

angstrom units (Å), multiply the nanometer value by 10.

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Packing Efficiency of the Structure or Atomic Packing Factor (APF)

Packing efficiency of
Represents the the atoms is related to Packing fraction is
percentage of space the density of a defined as the ratio
that is occupied in material because an of volume of atoms
each arrangement. increase in the packing occupying the unit
efficiency will put more cell to the volume of
atoms into the same unit cell.
volume.

Atomic Packing Factor or Packing Efficiency Equation

𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙

APF = 𝑥 100 %
𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙

▪ Atomic Packing Factor for Simple Cubic Unit Cell

Consider a cube of side 'a'. Atoms of radius ‘r’ is placed at the corner. So
that length of cube is a=2r.

Where:

Volume of Unit Cell = a3 = (2r)3 = 8r3

Volume of atom in a unit cell = no. of atom in a unit cell * volume of the atom (sphere)
4 4
= 1 𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚 ∗ 𝜋𝑟 3 = 𝜋𝑟 3
3 3

4
Thus: 𝜋𝑟 3 𝜋
APF = 3
𝑥 100 % = 𝑥 100 % = 52.3 % ~ 0.523
8𝑟 3 6

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This means that 52.3 % of unit cell contains matter and 47.7 % empty.

▪ Atomic Packing Factor for Body-Centered Cubic Unit Cell

Consider a cube of side ‘a’, and atoms of radius ‘r’ are placed at corners and
at the body centre. Length of body diagonal, √𝟑a = 4r.

a r
Where

4𝑟 64 𝑟 3
Volume of unit cell = a3 = ( ) 3=
√3 3 √3

4 8
Volume of atoms in unit cell = 2 * 𝜋𝑟 3 = 𝜋𝑟 3
3 3

Therefore:
8
𝜋𝑟 3
APF = 𝑥 100 % = 𝑥 100 % = 68 % ~ 0.68
3 √3𝜋
64 𝑟3 8
3√3

▪ Atomic Packing Factor for Face-Centered Cubic Unit Cell

Consider a cube of length ‘a’ and atoms of radius ’r’ are placed at the corners
as well as at the face centre. Length of face diagonal, 4r.

From the right triangle on the face,

a2 + a2 = (4r)2
r
Solving for a,
a 4r
a = 2r √𝟐

Where
a

Volume of unit cell = a3 = (2r√𝟐 )3 = 16r3√𝟐

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4 16
Volume of atoms in unit cell= 4* 𝜋𝑟 3 = 𝜋𝑟 3
3 3

Therefore

16
𝜋𝑟 3
APF = 3
x 100 = 74 % ~ 0.74
(16r3√𝟐)

Note:
Atomic Packing Factor or Packing Efficiency of both hexagonal and
cubic closest packing is 74 %.

Figure 2.12 The shading in this periodic table indicates the most stable crystal structure
for the solid state of the elements. Most of the elements display one of the
structures we have discussed, but a few less common crystal arrangements
are also known.
Source: Brown and Holmes (2012). Chemistry for Engineering, 2 Ed. Cengage Learning Asia
nd

Pte Ltd

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Let’s Take Examples

Copper adopts cubic closest packing, and the edge length of the unit cell is
361.5 pm. What is the atomic radius of copper?

Solution

Cubic closest packing gives a face-

centered cubic unit cell, and we know the edge a C= 4r
length, then we can solve for r.

a = 361.5 pm

Using Pythagorean theorem to find C, the diagonal of the cell’s face

C = √𝑎2 + 𝑎2 = √2𝑎2 = √2 (361.5 𝑝𝑚 )2 = 511.2 ppm

Solve for radius of Cu:

𝐶 511.2 𝑝𝑚
C= 4r, r = 4 = = 𝟏𝟐𝟕. 𝟖 𝒑𝒎
4

Iron crystallizes in a body-centered cubic structure. If the atomic radius of Fe is

126 pm, find the edge length in nm of the unit cell.

Solution
Since radius of the cell is given,
therefore we can use the equation for
the volume of the unit cell of BCC to
find the edge length of the iron crystal
which gives us a=? r = 126 ppm

4𝑟 64 𝑟 3 64 (126 𝑝𝑚 )3
Volume of unit cell = a3 = ( ) 3= =
√3 3√3 3√3
0.001 𝑛𝑚
a = 290.98 pm x 1 𝑝𝑚
=0.291 nm

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If the atomic radius of aluminum is 0.143 nm, calculate the volume of its unit
cell in cubic meters.

Solution
Table 2.2 or Figure 2.12 displayed that aluminum metal has a face-
centered cubic structure; given the radius = 0.143 nm, we can compute the volume
of its unit using the equation as follows
16 16
Volume of atoms in unit cell= 𝜋𝑟 3 = 𝜋 (0.143 nm)3 = 0.0490 nm3
3 3

Since the unit required is in cm3, convert nm3 to cm3 to give us

10−9 𝑚 3 1 𝑐𝑚
Volume of atoms in unit cell = 0.0490 nm3 x ( ) x( )3
1 𝑛𝑚 10−2 𝑚

= 4.9 x10-23 cm3

Density Calculation
A knowledge of the crystal structure of a metallic solid permits computation
of its theoretical density. Thus, the formula for the theoretical density is:

𝑛𝐴
𝜌=
𝑉𝐶 𝑁𝐴
where:
𝜌 = 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦
𝑛 = 𝑛𝑜. 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑠 associated with each unit cell
𝐴 = 𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑐 𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡
𝑉𝑐 = 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙
𝑁𝐴 = 𝐴𝑣𝑜𝑔𝑎𝑑𝑟𝑜′ 𝑠 𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 (6.022 x 10 23 atoms/mol)

Let’s Take Examples

Copper has an atomic radius of 0.128 nm, an FCC crystal structure, and an
atomic weight of 63.5 g/mol. Compute its theoretical density and compare the
answer with its measured density.

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Solution
Because the crystal structure is FCC, n, the number of atoms per unit cell,
is 4. Furthermore, the atomic weight ACu is given as 63.5 g/mol.
The unit cell volume VC for FCC is computed using Vc = 16r3√𝟐, where r, the
atomic radius, is 0.128 nm ~1.28 x 10 − 8 cm, thus theorical density is
𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑠 g
𝑛𝐴 (4𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙 )(63.5mol )
𝜌= = 𝑐𝑚 3 𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚
𝑉𝐶 𝑁𝐴 [ 16 √2 (1.28 x 10−8 cm)3 ](6.022 x 10 23 )
𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡 𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑜𝑙

= 8.89 g/cm3

The literature value for the density of copper is 8.94 g/cm3, which is in very
close agreement with the foregoing result.

Polonium crystallizes in a simple cubic pattern with a unit cell length of 3.36
angstrom (Å). Estimate the density of Po in g/cm 3. (1 Å = 1x10-8 cm)

Solution
Since the crystal structure is SC, thus, n = 1 atom per unit cell, the atomic
weight APo = 209 g/mol, a = 3.36 𝐴̇ ~3.36 x 10 -8
cm. The calculated density of
Polonium crystal is
𝑛𝐴
𝜌=𝑉𝑁
𝑐 𝐴
𝑔
(1 𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚)(209 )
𝑚𝑜𝑙
𝜌= 𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑠
(3.36𝑥10−8 𝑐𝑚)3(6.022𝑥1023 )
𝑚𝑜𝑙

𝝆 = 𝟗. 𝟏𝟓 𝒈/𝒄𝒎𝟑

Europium forms a body-centered cubic unit cell and has a density of 4.68
g/cm3. From this information, determine the length of the edge of the cubic cell
in nm.

Solution
Given that the structure is BCC therefore, n =2 and AEU = 151.96 g/ mol.
Using theoretical density equation, it gives us the volume of the cubic cell.
𝑛𝐴
𝜌=
𝑉𝐶 𝑁𝐴

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g
𝑛𝐴 (2 𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑠 )( 151.96 )
𝑉𝐶 = = g
𝑚𝑜𝑙
𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑚 = 1.08 x 10-22 cm 3
𝜌 𝑁𝐴 ( 4.68 3 ) ( 6.022 𝑥10 23 )
cm 𝑚𝑜𝑙

Using volume of a unit cell for BCC to determine the edge of the cubic cell,
64 𝑟 3
Volume of unit cell =
3 √3

64 𝑟 3
1.08 x 10-22 cm 3 =
3 √3

3 1.08 x 10−22 cm 3 ( 3√3 )

r= √ = 1.29 x 10-9 cm
64

Where length of body diagonal, √3a = 4r

4𝑟 4 ( 1.29 𝑥 10 −9 𝑐𝑚 ) 10−2 𝑚 1 𝑛𝑚
a= = x x10−9 𝑚 = 0.0298 nm
√3 √3 1 𝑐𝑚

Instructions:
Problem Set # 2.1
✓ Answer the following questions/problems
below.
✓ Write your answers/solutions in the prescribed
answer sheet clearly and neatly.
✓ Strictly follow one number/ problem per page.
✓ Upload your answers in a word file in our UVE platform.

1. What type of crystal lattice does each metal form? The number of atoms per unit
cell is given in the parentheses.

a. Ni (4) b. Cr (2) c. Ca (4)

2. The accompanying figure shows a unit cell for a hypothetical metal.

(a) To which crystal system does this unit cell belong?
(b) What would this crystal structure be called?

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(c) Calculate the density of the material, given that its atomic weight is 141
g/mol.

3. An element crystallizes in a body-centered cubic lattice. The edge of the unit

cell is 0.286 nm, and the density of the crystal is 7.92 g/cm 3. Calculate the atomic
weight of the element.

4. The atomic weight, density, and atomic radius for three hypothetical alloys are
listed in the following table. For each, determine whether its crystal structure is
FCC, BCC, or simple cubic and then justify your determination.

Alloy Atomic Weight Density Atomic Radius

(g/mol) (g/cm3) (nm)

A 77.4 8.22 0.125

B 107.6 13.42 0.133

C 127.3 9.23 0.142

5. How is learning crystal structure relevant to the study of engineering?

You nailed it! You completed Lesson 1 of Module 2! Kindly

proceed to Lesson 2 of Module 2 as soon as you are ready. This
lesson will provide background of the Chemistry of Metals.

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References:

Brown, L. and Holmes, T. (2012). Chemistry for Engineering, 2nd Ed. Cengage
Learning Asia Pte Ltd.

Callister, Jr., W.D. & Rethwisch, D.G. (2010). Materials Science and Engineering:
An Introduction, 8th Edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Openstax Chemistry. Lattice Structures in Crystalline Solids. Retrieved from

https://cnx.org/contents/[email protected]:EWNgknft@11/Lattice-
Structures-in-Crystalline-Solids.

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