Plastic crystals, structure

An example of research in the micromechanics of shock compression of solids is the study of rate-dependent plasticity and its relationship to crystal structure, crystal orientation, and the fundamental unit of plasticity, the dislocation. The majority of data on high-rate plastic flow in shock-compressed solids is in the form of ... 

Kulinski, Z. and Piorkowska, E. 2005. Crystallization, structure and properties of plasticized poly(L-lactide). Polymer 46 10290-10300. 

A number of other thermodynamic properties of adamantane and diamantane in different phases are reported by Kabo et al. [5]. They include (1) standard molar thermodynamic functions for adamantane in the ideal gas state as calculated by statistical thermodynamics methods and (2) temperature dependence of the heat capacities of adamantane in the condensed state between 340 and 600 K as measured by a scanning calorimeter and reported here in Fig. 8. According to this figure, liquid adamantane converts to a solid plastic with simple cubic crystal structure upon freezing. After further cooling it moves into another solid state, an fee crystalline phase. 

The term plastic crystal is not used if the rotation of the particles is hindered, i.e. if the molecules or ions perform rotational vibrations (librations) about their centers of gravity with large amplitudes this may include the occurrence of several preferred orientations. Instead, such crystals are said to have orientational disorder. Such crystals are annoying during crystal structure analysis by X-ray diffraction because the atoms can hardly be located. This situation is frequent among ions like BF4, PFg or N(CH3)J. To circumvent difficulties during structure determination, experienced chemists avoid such ions and prefer heavier, less symmetrical or more bulky ions. 

When normal sites in a crystal structure are replaced by impurity atoms, or vacancies, or interstitial atoms, the local electronic structure is disturbed and local electronic states are introduced. Now when a dislocation kink moves into such a site, its energy changes, not by a minute amount but by some significant amount. The resistance to further motion is best described as an increase in the local viscosity coefficient, remembering that plastic deformation is time dependent. A viscosity coefficient, q relates a rate d8/dt with a stress, x ... 

Figure 9.2 is schematic diagram of the crystal structure of most of the alkali halides, letting the black circles represent the positive metal ions (Li, Na, K, Rb, and Cs), and the gray circles represent the negative halide ions (F, Cl, Br, and I).The ions lie on two interpenetrating face-centered-cubic lattices. Of the 20 alkali halides, 17 have the NaCl crystal structure of Figure 9.1. The other three (CsCl, CsBr, and Csl) have the cesium chloride structure where the ions lie on two interpenetrating body-centered-cubic lattices (Figure 9.3). The plastic deformation on the primary glide planes for the two structures is quite different.

Figure 10.7 illustrates the prototype hexaboride crystal structure, that of lanthanum hexaboride. It consists of a simple cubic array of boron octahedra surrounding a metal atom at the body center of each cube. The octahedra are linked by B-B bonds connecting their comers. This makes the overall structure relatively hard with approximately the hardness of boron itself since plastic shear must break B-B bonds. The open volumes surrounded by boron octahedra are occupied by the relatively large lanthanum atoms as the figure shows schematically. 

An alternative version of the lanthanum hexaboride crystal structure has the boron octahedra occupying the body centered positions of the cubic array of lanthanum atoms (Figure 10.8). This version makes it clear that in order to plastically shear the structure, the boron octahedra must be sheared. Note that the octahedra are linked together both internally and externally by B-B bonds. 

In relatively recent years, it has been found that that indentations made in covalent crystals at temperatures below their Debye temperatures often result from crystal structure changes, as well as from plastic deformation via dislocation activity. Thus, indentation hardness numbers may provide better critical parameters for structural stability than pressure cell studies because indentation involves a combination of shear and hydrostatic compression and a phase transformation involves both of these quantities. 

A white pigment for rubbers and plastics characterised by high tinctorial power, fastness to light, and chemical stability. Titanium dioxide pigments are made in two crystal forms, mtile and anatase, which differ in crystal structure and crystal size. 

Fontell, K., X-ray Diffraetion by Liquid Crystals—Amphiphilie Systems. In Liquid Crystals and Plastic Crystals (G. Gray and P. Winsor, eds.), Vol. 2, Ellis Horwood, Chiehester, 1974. Luzzati, V., Mustaeehi, H., Skoulios, A., and Husson, F., La structure des colloides d associa-tion. I. Les phases liquide-eristalline des systemes amphiphile-eau, Acta Cryst., 13 660-677 (1960). 

---