Diamond crystallinity

The chemical composition and crystal structure of a mineral determine its physical and optical properties. The diamond crystalline lattice structure (Fig. 4.3.2)... 

Figure 4.3.2 The diamond crystalline lattice structure composed of two interpenetrating face-centered cubic lattices.

FIGURE 54 The energy-dependent oscillator strength or the effective number of valence electrons per atom contributing to interband transitions in amorphous diamond, crystalline diamond, and graphite [132]. 

FIGURE 9.2 Model of structure of detonation carbon particle. (1) Diamond crystalline core, (2) onion-like shell, (3) set of graphene sheets, (4) nanographite grains, and (5) impurity particles. 

Finally, it has to be noted from the various simulations that for the fin as well as for the layer, it was not possible to cure grains once they have formed, and even in the case of the layer where the SPE front has progressed without defects, it stops as it arrives to the grain. This is due to the fact that the energy inside the grain is low, since it has the diamond crystalline structure, and the grain is too stable to allow the atoms to rearrange to positions oriented with the bottom part. 

A related advantage of studying crystalline matter is that one can have synnnetry-related operations that greatly expedite the discussion of a chemical bond. For example, in an elemental crystal of diamond, all the chemical bonds are equivalent. There are no tenninating bonds and the characterization of one bond is sufficient to understand die entire system. If one were to know the binding energy or polarizability associated with one bond, then properties of the diamond crystal associated with all the bonds could be extracted. In contrast, molecular systems often contain different bonds and always have atoms at the boundary between the molecule and the vacuum. 

Crystalline silicon has the tetrahedral diamond arrangement, but since the mean thermochemical bond strength between the silicon atoms is less than that found between carbon atoms (Si—Si, 226 kJmol , C—C, 356kJmol ), silicon does not possess the great hardness found in diamond. Amorphous silicon (silicon powder) is microcrystalline silicon. 

Pure silica contains no metal ions and every oxygen becomes a bridge between two silicon atoms giving a three-dimensional network. The high-temperature form, shown in Fig. 16.3(c), is cubic the tetrahedra are stacked in the same way as the carbon atoms in the diamond-cubic structure. At room temperature the stable crystalline form of silica is more complicated but, as before, it is a three-dimensional network in which all the oxygens bridge silicons. 

The eommonest erystalline forms of earbon, cubie diamond and hexagonal graphite, are elassical examples of allotropy that are found in every chemistry textbook. Both diamond and graphite also exist in two minor crystallographie forms hexagonal diamond and rhombohedral graphite. To these must be added earbynes and Fullerenes, both of which are crystalline earbon forms. Fullerenes are sometimes referred to as the third allotrope of carbon. However, sinee Fullerenes were diseovered more recently than earbynes, they are... 

Several nonmetallic elements and metalloids have a network covalent structure. The most important of these is carbon, which has two different crystalline forms of the network covalent type. Both graphite and diamond have high melting points, above 3500°C. However, the bonding patterns in the two solids are quite different... 

Diamond is a naturally occurring form of pure, crystalline carbon. Each carbon atom is surrounded by four others arranged tetrahe-drally. The result is a compact structural network bound by normal chemical bonds. This description offers a ready explanation for the extreme hardness and the great stability of carbon in this form. 

A distinction between a solid and liquid is often made in terms of the presence of a crystalline or noncrystalline state. Crystals have definite lines of cleavage and an orderly geometric structure. Thus, diamond is crystalline and solid, while glass is not. The hardness of the substance does not determine the physical state. Soft crystals such as sodium metal, naphthalene, and ice are solid while supercooled glycerine or supercooled quartz are not crystalline and are better considered to be supercooled liquids. Intermediate between the solid and liquid are liquid crystals, which have orderly structures in one or two dimensions,4 but not all three. These demonstrate that science is never as simple as we try to make it through our classification schemes. We will see that thermodynamics handles such exceptions with ease. 

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