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Close Packing
Close Packing
Steven Dutch, Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay First-time Visitors: Please visit Site Map and Disclaimer. Use "Back" to return here.
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Top: Identical atoms can be packed into a sheet with a hexagonal pattern. Another layer can be placed on top in one of two ways: over the upward-pointing gaps (blue) or the downward-pointing gaps (yellow). Layers B and C show layers in these positions. Bottom: If layers alternate (left) or are randomly stacked (right) the overall structure has only the hexagonal symmetry of the individual sheets. The alternating pattern is called Hexagonal close packing. The oxygen atoms in corundum and hematite have this packing.
In real crystals the anions often have close packing with the interstices between layers occupied by cations. Since the cations attract the anion sheets and repel nearby cations, electrical forces tend to produce symmetrical arrangements. Thus the regular alternating stacking is favored.
Top: The three possible arrangements of close-packed atomic layers are shown. Note how the three layers also form a square lattice of atoms. The lattice plane is tilted in this
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Close Packing
view. Bottom: If the layers repeat cyclically, cubic close packing results. The two right diagrams show how a cube can be formed by this packing. Oxygen atoms in spinel and magnetite have this arrangement, as do the chlorine atoms in halite, the sulfur atoms in sphalerite and the calcium atoms in fluorite. The face-centered cubic unit cell (F cell) has cubic close packing.
Return to Crustal Materials Index Return to Crystal Structures Index Return to Professor Dutch's Home Page Created 18 September 1998, Last Update 22 September 1999 Not an official UW Green Bay site
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