Crystal covalently bonded

The four types of crystals and the forces that hold their particles together are ionic crystals, held together by ionic bonding molecular crystals, van der Waals forces and/or hydrogen bonding covalent crystals, covalent bonding and metallic crystals, metallic bonding. 

Covalen t crystals Covalent bonds are formed when atoms share electrons. The formation of covalent crystals results in highly directional bonding and packing, which is far from close-packed. 

Covalent crystals Covalent bonds join the atoms of the crystal (diamond, quartz). 

If silicon atoms are substituted for half the carbon atoms in this structure, the resulting structure is that of silicon carbide (carborundum). Both diamond and silicon carbide are extremely hard, and this accounts for their extensive use as abrasives. In fact, diamond is the hardest substance known. To scratch or break diamond or silicon carbide crystals, covalent bonds must be broken. These two materials are also nonconductors of electricity and do not melt or sublime except at very high temperatures. SiC sublimes at 2700 °C, and diamond melts above 3500 °C. 

In most covalent compounds, the strong covalent bonds link the atoms together into molecules, but the molecules themselves are held together by much weaker forces, hence the low melting points of molecular crystals and their inability to conduct electricity. These weak intermolecular forces are called van der WaaFs forces in general, they increase with increase in size of the molecule. Only... 

Theoretical studies of diffusion aim to predict the distribution profile of an exposed substrate given the known process parameters of concentration, temperature, crystal orientation, dopant properties, etc. On an atomic level, diffusion of a dopant in a siUcon crystal is caused by the movement of the introduced element that is allowed by the available vacancies or defects in the crystal. Both host atoms and impurity atoms can enter vacancies. Movement of a host atom from one lattice site to a vacancy is called self-diffusion. The same movement by a dopant is called impurity diffusion. If an atom does not form a covalent bond with siUcon, the atom can occupy in interstitial site and then subsequently displace a lattice-site atom. This latter movement is beheved to be the dominant mechanism for diffusion of the common dopant atoms, P, B, As, and Sb (26). 

When a sibcon crystal is doped with atoms of elements having a valence of less than four, eg, boron or gallium (valence = 3), only three of the four covalent bonds of the adjacent sibcon atoms are occupied. The vacancy at an unoccupied covalent bond constitutes a hole. Dopants that contribute holes, which in turn act like positive charge carriers, are acceptor dopants and the resulting crystal is -type (positive) sibcon (Fig. Id). 

Network covalent Having a structure in which all the atoms in a crystal are linked by a network of covalent bonds, 240-245 properties, 245t simplest, 242 solids, 241-243 structures, 245t Neutral atoms, 28... 

This type of argument leads us to picture a metal as an array of positive ions located at the crystal lattice sites, immersed in a sea of mobile electrons. The idea of a more or less uniform electron sea emphasizes an important difference between metallic bonding and ordinary covalent bonding. In molecular covalent bonds the electrons are localized in a way that fixes the positions of the atoms quite rigidly. We say that the bonds have directional character— the electrons tend to remain concentrated in certain regions of space. In contrast, the valence electrons in a metal are spread almost uniformly throughout the crystal, so the metallic bond does not exert the directional influence of the ordinary covalent bond. 

Even though silicon is metallic in appearance, it is not generally classified as a metal. The electrical conductivity of silicon is so much less than that of ordinary metals it is called a semiconductor. Silicon is an example of a network solid (see Figure 20-1)—it has the same atomic arrangement that occurs in diamond. Each silicon atom is surrounded by, and covalently bonded to, four other silicon atoms. Thus, the silicon crystal can be regarded as one giant molecule. 

In certain cases the radical-anion pairs are considered as an example of a covalent bond, close to zero 15 and an isolated pair outside a crystal was depicted17, however Shislov and coworkers16 proposed that more likely the entire potential well for the radical-anion pairs is completely the result of the action of the crystal lattice18. As a proof they used their observation that radical-anion pairs are not formed in irradiated frozen aqueous-sulfoxide glasses. 

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