Ionic Solids and Close Packing

Subsequently, we can easily explain the formation of ionic solids by close packing of charged spheres. Then we speak about solubility of these solids and show that some of them like Na" Cl are soluble, while others like Ca " C03 " are not. This gives me the opportunity to tell about the role of ions and ionic material in hving systems (firing during neurotransmission and skeletal construction). 

The defects which disrupt the regular patterns of crystals, can be classified into point defects (zero-dimensional), line defects (1-dimensional), planar (2-dimensional) and bulk defects (3-dimensional). Point defects are imperfections of the crystal lattice having dimensions of the order of the atomic size. The formation of point defects in solids was predicted by Frenkel [40], At high temperatures, the thermal motion of atoms becomes more intensive and some of atoms obtain energies sufficient to leave their lattice sites and occupy interstitial positions. In this case, a vacancy and an interstitial atom, the so-called Frenkel pair, appear simultaneously. A way to create only vacancies has been shown later by Wagner and Schottky [41] atoms leave their lattice sites and occupy free positions on the surface or at internal imperfections of the crystal (voids, grain boundaries, dislocations). Such vacancies are often called Schottky defects (Fig. 6.3). This mechanism dominates in solids with close-packed lattices where the formation of vacancies requires considerably smaller energies than that of interstitials. In ionic compounds also there are defects of two types, Frenkel and Schottky disorder. In the first case there are equal numbers of cation vacancies... 

Characteristically, glasses are brittle solids which in practice break only under tension. The ionic and directional nature of the bonds and the identification of electrons with particular pairs of atoms preclude bond exchange. This, coupled with the random nature of the atomic lattice, i.e. the absence of close-packed planes, makes gross slip or plastic flow impossible. 

The concept of a zero-dimensional intrinsic point defect was first introduced in 1926 by the Russian physicist Jacov Il ich Frenkel (1894-1952), who postulated the existence of vacancies, or unoccupied lattice sites, in alkali-halide crystals (Frenkel, 1926). Vacancies are predominant in ionic solids when the anions and cations are similar in size, and in metals when there is very little room to accommodate interstitial atoms, as in closed packed stmctures. The interstitial is the second type of point defect. Interstitial sites are the small voids between lattice sites. These are more likely to be occupied by small atoms, or, if there is a pronounced polarization, to the lattice. In this way, there is little dismption to the stmcture. Another type of intrinsic point defect is the anti-site atom (an atom residing on the wrong sublattice). 

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