STRUCTURE OF METALS.

G. Chowdhury Prof. (EM)/IRIMEE

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 PROLOUGE
• About two thirds of all the elements are
Metal.
• About 24% of the mass of the planet.
• All around us in such forms as steel
structures, copper wires, utensils,
aluminum foil, gold jewelry etc..
• Widely used because of their properties:
Strength, Ductility, High Melting Point,
Thermal and Electrical Conductivity,
Toughness etc..
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 PROLOUGE
These properties suggest that
• Metal atoms have some kind of bonds
amongst themselves
• The atoms are placed at regular interval
• A conceptual model can be a crystalline
structure, where the valence electrons are
shared in a common pool
• Present day high resolution microscopes
proves indeed the structure to be so.
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 PROLOUGE
• Metal atoms have low electro negativities and
do not attract their valence electrons strongly.
• This allows the outermost electrons to be
shared by all the surrounding atoms
• Result is positive ions (Cations) surrounded by
a sea of electrons (sometimes referred to as
an Electron Cloud).

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 CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
SPACE LATTICE
• If an infinite number of points are arranged
in space, such that every point has the
same environment, then the identical
members can be jointed point to point by
straight lines in the space to get identical
parallelepipeds which are repeatable in all
directions. This arrangement is called a
SPACE LATTICE

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 CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
• Unit Cell: Parallelepipeds, such obtained, are
called UNIT CELL and are the Units/ Building
blocks in crystalline solid.

• CRYSTAL OR GRAIN- when a large number of

unit cells aggregates in space in a geometric
pattern, it forms a CRYSTAL OR GRAIN

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 CRYSTAL STRUCTURE

Lattice Parameters or Lattice Constants:

• The center to centre distances of atoms along
the edges of a unit cell and the angles
between them are called the LATTICE
PARAMETERS or LATTICE CONSTANTS.
• Lengths denoted by a, b and c
• Angles by α (b, c), β (c, a) and γ (a, b).

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 CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
DIFFERENT TYPES OF UNIT CELLS:
• Depending upon the lattice parameters, there are seven
types of unit cells.
1) Triclinic in which a≠b≠c and α≠β≠γ;
2) Monoclinic in which a≠b≠c and α= γ=900 ≠ β
3) Orthorhombic in which a≠b≠c and α= β = γ = 900
4) Hexagonal in which a=b≠c and α= β= 900, and γ≠ 900
5) Rhombohedral in which a=b=c and; α= β = γ ≠ 900
6) Tetragonal in which a=b≠c and α= β = γ = 900
7) Cubic in which a=b=c and and α= β = γ = 900

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 Primary Crystalline Structures

•Some geometrical patterns can have more than

one way of arranging atoms.
•Total 14 different types of crystal are found in
nature.
•Most metals and many other solids have unit
cell structures described as Body Center Cubic
(BCC), Face Centered Cubic (FCC) and
Hexagonal Close Packed (HCP).
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 Body-Centered Cubic (BCC) Structure

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 Body-Centered Cubic (BCC)
•Atoms at each of the eight corners of a cube plus one
atom in the center of the cube
• Each of the corner atoms is the corner of another
cube; corner atoms are shared among eight unit cells.
•It have a coordination number of 8.
•The unit cell has a net total of 2 atoms
 one in the center
Eight eighths from corners atoms.
•The closest pack direction is along the body diagonals11
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Body-Centered Cubic (BCC)
•BCC arrangement does not allow the atoms to pack
together as closely as the FCC or HCP arrangements.
•Often the high temperature form of metals which are
having close-packed structure at lower temperature.
•The BCC unit cell has a packing factor of 0.68.
•Some of the materials that have a BCC structure include
Lithium, Sodium, Potassium, Chromium, Barium, Alpha-
iron and Tungsten.
•Lesser number of Slip Planes
•So, comparatively harder and less malleable
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 Face Centered Cubic (FCC) Structure

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Face Centered Cubic (FCC)
•The structure has atoms located at each of the corners
plus at the centers of all the cubic faces
•Each of corner atoms is shared among eight unit cells
& each of face centre atoms is shared by adjacent cells
•It has a coordination number of 12.
•The unit cell consists of a net total of four atoms
Eight eighths from corners atoms
Six halves of the face atoms
•Face diagonals are the closest pack direction
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Face Centered Cubic (FCC)
•In the FCC structure (and the HCP structure)
the atoms can pack closer together than they
can in the BCC structure.
•The atoms of one layer rest themselves in the
empty space (troughs) between the atoms of
the lower layer.
•The packing factor 0.74 for FCC crystals.
•Some of the metals that have the FCC
structure include Aluminum, Copper, Gold,
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Iridium, Lead, Nickel, Platinum and Silver.
Hexagonal Close Packed (HCP) Structure

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 Hexagonal Close Packed (HCP)
• Atoms located at each corner and centre of Top
& Bottom Hexagons, placed exactly one over the
other plus at the middle gaps of these hexagons
• It has a coordination number of 12.
• The unit cell consists of a net total of six atoms
 Twelve sixths from corners atoms
 Two halves of the face atoms
 Three full from the middle atoms
• Face diagonals are the closest pack directions

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 Hexagonal Close Packed (HCP)
• Both FCC and HCP have packing factor of
0.74
• In FCC the packing arrangement is abcabc
• In HCP, the packing arrangement is ababab
• HCP is less ready deformable than FCC
because of lesser number of slip planes,
only three as against six in FCC
• Some of the metals having HCP structure
include Beryllium, Cadmium, Magnesium,
Titanium, Zinc and Zirconiuum.
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