Rocksalt

The rocksalt stmcture is illustrated in figure Al.3.5. This stmcture represents one of the simplest compound stmctures. Numerous ionic crystals fonn in the rocksalt stmcture, such as sodium chloride (NaCl). The conventional unit cell of the rocksalt stmcture is cubic. There are eight atoms in the conventional cell. For the primitive unit cell, the lattice vectors are the same as FCC. The basis consists of two atoms one at the origin and one displaced by one-half the body diagonal of the conventional cell. 

Fig. 16.1. Ionic ceramics, (a) The rocksalt, or NoCl, structure, (b) Magnesia, MgO, has the rocksalt structure. It can be thought of as an f.c.c. packing with Mg ions in the octahedral holes. ( ) Cubic zirconia ZrOj an f.c.c. packing of Zr with O in the tetrahedral holes, (d) Alumina, AljOj a c.p.h. packing of oxygen with Al in two-thirds of the octahedral holes.

The archetype of the ionic ceramic is sodium chloride ("rocksalt"), NaCl, shown in Fig. 16.1(a). Each sodium atom loses an electron to a chlorine atom it is the electrostatic attraction between the Na ions and the CF ions that holds the crystal together. To achieve the maximum electrostatic interaction, each Na has 6 CF neighbours and no Na neighbours (and vice versa) there is no way of arranging single-charged ions that does better than this. So most of the simple ionic ceramics with the formula AB have the rocksalt structure. 

Magnesia, MgO, is an example (Fig. 16.1b). It is an engineering ceramic, used as a refractory in furnaces, and its structure is exactly the same as that of rocksalt the atoms pack to maximise the density, with the constraint that like ions are not nearest neighbours. 

Figure 2 Calculated Hg L3-edge specu a (a) at 1.5 GPa with hypothetical zincblende (full line) and cinnabar (dashed line) structures (b) at 8GPa with hypothetical cinnabar (dashed line) and rocksalt (full line) structures.

Thallous halides offer a unique possibility of studying the stereochemistry of the (chemically) inert electron pair, since their structures and their pressure and temperature-dependent phase transitions have been well established. Thallium (1) fluoride under ambient conditions, adopts an orthorhombic structure in the space group Pbcm which can be regarded as a distorted rocksalt structure (Fig. 2.4). In contrast to TIF, the thallium halides with heavier halogens, TlCl, TlBr and Til, adopt the highly symmetric cubic CsCl structure type under ambient conditions [46]. Both TlCl and TlBr, at lower temperatures, undergo phase transitions to the NaCl type of structure [47]. 

Zhang Y, Hodes G, Rubinstein I, Griinbaum E, Nayak RR, Hutchison JL (1999) Electrodeposited quantum dots Metastable rocksalt CdSe nanocrystals on 111 gold alloys. Adv Mater 11 1437-1441... 

Only two crystalline substrates have had appreciable use for the preparation of the metal film catalysts. These are mica and rocksalt. 

In all cases, film catalysts refer to thick polycrystalline films deposited at 0°C, except for (111) Pt and (100) Pt which were deposited at 300°C and 250°C on mica and evaporated rocksalt substrates, respectively. b E, activation energy, kcal mol-1. c Frequency factor, molecules cm-2 sec-1. 

Figure 10.1 Schematic layers of Ti and C atoms in the rocksalt crystal structure of TiC.

Perhaps the most simple crystals in this class are the alkaline earth oxides. They are II-VI compounds and have rocksalt crystal structures. Data for their hardnesses versus their bond moduli (optical band gaps per molecular volumes) are displayed in Figure 11.4. 

It should be noted that these types of spectra are expected only for quadrupolar nuclei of semiconductors in non-cubic axially-symmetric forms such as the WZ structure cubic forms such as ZB or rocksalt structures ideally lack any anisotropy, and the ST peaks overlap the CT peak. However, defects in such cubic structures can produce EFGs that have random orientations, and the resulting ST are spread out over a wide range. 

In the KNCS (FT) complex (58) the anions are somewhat disordered in the crystal but the general arrangement is that of a distorted rocksalt structure. In the complex cation, Figs. 8 and 9, the molecule has S4... 

Rocket propulsion oxidizers, 18 384-385 Rocks, weathering of, radiation and, 3 299 Rocksalt, crystal structure of, 2 6, 29 Rock-salt-type alkali halide crystals, dissolution process, 39 411 19 alkali chlorides, 39 413, 416 alkali fluorides, 39 413-415... 

Few oxide superconductors were known prior to 1985 and we shall now return to these so that we can discuss these materials in reference to their crystal structure classes. There are only three broad structural categories in which most of the oxide superconductors occur. The important structural types include sodium chloride (rocksalt, or Bl-type), perovskite (E2X), and spinel (Hlx). 

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