Ionic bonds crystal defects

Popular approaches to molecular self-assembly, which can give structures in the nanometer to millimeter range, are based on SAMs and LBL deposition of electrolytes. Self-assembly leads to equilibrium structures that are close to the thermodynamic minimum and result from multiple weak, reversible interactious betweeu subuuits which include hydrogen bonds, ionic bonds, and van der Waals forces. As information is already coded in the building blocks, this is a means to avoid defect formation in aggregate formation. SAMs are molecular assemblies of long chain alkanes that chemisorb on the patterned and unpat-temed surfaces of appropriate solid materials. The structures of SAMs, effectively 2D-crystals with controllable chemical functionality, make them a means to modify substrates to direct protein adsorption and cell attachment, surface passivation, ultrathin resists and masks and sensor development. 

These observations were the basis for the proposal that polymers, like ionic crystals, exhibit shock-induced polarization due to mechanically induced defects which are forced into polar configurations with the large acceleration forces within the loading portion of the shock pulse. Such a process was termed a mechanically induced, bond-scission model [79G01] and is somewhat supported by independent observations of the propensity of polymers to be damaged by more conventional mechanical deformation processes. As in the ionic crystals, the mechanically induced, bond-scission model is an example of a catastrophic shock compression model. 

Irradiation of all kinds of solids (metals, semiconductors, insulators) is known to produce pairs of the point Frenkel defects - vacancies, v, and interstitial atoms, i, which are most often spatially well-correlated [1-9]. In many ionic crystals these Frenkel defects form the so-called F and H centres (anion vacancy with trapped electron and interstitial halide atom X° forming the chemical bonding in a form of quasimolecule X2 with some of the nearest regular anions, X-) - Fig. 3.1. In metals the analog of the latter is called the dumbbell interstitial. 

The qualitative properties of a defect such as a sulfur vacancy in ZnS are fortunately independent of the type of bonding in the compound. If we consider first that ZnS is an ionic compound composed of Zn+2 and S-2 ions, the removal of a neutral S atom to the gas phase to form S2 molecules leaves behind a neutral sulfur vacancy, Vs°, since charge neutrality must be preserved in the crystal. The two electrons left behind can be considered as being trapped in the vicinity of the vacancy and can be removed one at a time into the conduction band of the solid by thermal ionization. These processes can be written as ordinary chemical equations ... 

Ionic crystals may be viewed quite simply in terms of an electrostatic model of lattices of hard-sphere ions of opposing charges. Although conceptually simple, this model is not completely adequate, and we have seen that modifications must be made in it. First, the bonding is not completely ionic with compounds ranging from the alkali halides, for which complete ionicity is a very good approximation, to compounds for which the assumption of the presence of ions is rather poor. Secondly, the assumption of a perfect, infinite mathematical lattice with no defects is an oversimplification. As with all models, the use of the ionic model does not necessarily imply that it is true , merely that it is convenient and useful, and if proper caution is taken and adjustments are made, it proves to be a fruitful approach. 

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