Metallic structure

Prepared by: M. Ali Javed

 Objectives
Understand how metal/alloy
structure is formed & relates to
theirs properties?
 Outline
• Atomic bonding

• Structure of metals

• Development of grain
structure
 Atomic bonding

• All true solids show a crystal structure which

has a definite geometric arrangement of
atoms or molecules.
• Some materials such as glass do not have a
regular arrangement of molecules and are
not true solids but rather super-cooled
liquids.
 Atomic bonding
• Question ?
What holds the atoms or
molecules of solids together?

• There are four possible types of bonds:

• i. ionic bond
• ii. Covalent or homopolar bond
• iii. Metallic bond
• iv. Van der Waals forces
 Ionic bond

The bond formed by the complete transfer of

electrons from electropositive atoms to more
electronegative atom is called ionic or
electrovalent.
 Covalent bond
The bond formed by the sharing
of one, two, or three electron
from each element is single
covalent, double covalent and
triple covalent bond respectively.
 Metallic bond
• When a complete outer shell cannot be formed by
either electron transfer or electron sharing than it is
possible to have a bond known as metallic bond.
• A metallic bond is the electrostatic force of attraction
that the neighbour positive metallic ions have for the
free (delocalized) electrons.
• The most commonly accepted theory for metallic
bonding is called “electron sea model”
 Metallic bond
The highly mobile free electrons account for the high
electrical and thermal conductivity values in metals.
 Van der Waals Forces
• London Forces called van der Waals forces, are weak
interactions.
• According to the principle of probability, electrons are
not distributed symmetrically around the nucleus. But
they concentrate on one side. Due to this, molecule
becomes a temporary dipole.
• Partial positive and partial negative charges are
developed. Partial negative end of one molecule attracts
the partial positive end of the adjacent molecule, and a
weak interaction is produced.
• The forces are important in non-polar compounds & exist
in compounds having low boiling point, melting point etc,
e.g., inert gases.
 Structure of materials
• The physical structure of solid materials depends on the
– arrangement of the atoms, ions or molecules and the
– bonding forces between them.

• Crystalline materials have regular geometrical shape in

which atoms have characteristic regular and repetitive three
dimensional arrangement
• Examples of crystalline materials are metals, alloys and
some ceramic materials.
Classification of Materials-Based on Structure
and Atomic Arrangements

 Crystalline material is a material comprised of one or

many crystals. In each crystal, atoms or ions show a
long-range periodic arrangement.
 Amorphous material is a material whose structure lacks crystalline
periodicity; that is, the pattern of its constituent atoms or molecules
doesn’t repeat periodicity in 3-D.
 Single crystal is a crystalline material that is made of
only one crystal (there are no grain boundaries).
 Grains are the crystals in a polycrystalline material.
 Polycrystalline material is a material comprised of
many crystals (as opposed to a single-crystal material
that has only one crystal).
 Grain boundaries are regions between grains of a
polycrystalline material.
 Lattice, Unit Cells, and Crystal
Structures
• Lattice - A collection of points that divide space into smaller
equally sized segments.
• Basis - A group of atoms associated with a lattice point.
• Unit cell - A subdivision of the lattice that retains the overall
characteristics of the entire lattice.

• Packing factor - The fraction of space in a unit cell occupied by

atoms.

• Atomic radius - The apparent radius of an atom, typically

calculated from the dimensions of the unit cell.
Figure: (a) Photograph of a
silicon single crystal.
(b) Micrograph of a
polycrystalline stainless steel
showing grains and grain
boundaries (Courtesy Dr. M. Hua,
Dr. I. Garcia, and Dr. A.J.
Deardo.)
Figure: Summary/Classification of materials based on the type
of atomic order and structure.
 Space lattice
• Metallic atoms, on solidification, arrange themselves in
a regular three dimensional pattern.
• The three dimensional network of imaginary lines
connecting atoms is called space lattice,
• Three dimensional lattice indicates the external shapes
of crystal.
 Unit cell
• The smallest unit having the full
symmetry of the crystal is called
the unit cell.
• The specific unit cells for each
metal is defined by its
parameters which are
– the edges of the unit cell a, b,
c (called axial lengths) and
– the angles α (between b & c),
β (between a & c) and
(between a & b) are called
interaxial angles.
 Crystal Structures of Metals
• Metals are characterized by the
– metallic bonds and
– possess the distinguishing characteristics of
• Crystalline structure
• good electrical and thermal conductivity,
• luster,
• the ability to be plastically deformed to a fair degree
without fracturing, and
• a relativity high specific gravity (density) compared to non-
metals.
• strength
 Crystal Structures of Metals
• When metals solidify, the atoms arrange themselves in a
geometric lattice.
• Many metals exist in only one crystal structure or lattice
forms.
• Some metals can exist in solid state in two or more
lattice forms. These metals are said to be allotropic or
polymorphic (poly means “more than one”; morph
means “structure”), and
• The change from the one lattice to another is called
allotropic transformation. The most notable example of
such a metal is iron.
 Seven Crystal Systems

• Cubic
• Tetragonal
• Hexagonal
• Orthorhombic
• Rhombohedral
• Monoclinic
• Triclinic
 Figure: Metals exist in
one of the 14 crystal
structures at room
temperature

(c) 2003 Brooks/Cole Publishing / Thomson Learning™

 Lattice Parameters & Their Usage =
Dimensions, Angles >>>
Size/ Shape

Figure:
Definition of
the Lattice
Parameters
and their use in
cubic,
orthorhombic,
and hexagonal
crystal systems.

(c) 2003 Brooks/Cole Publishing / Thomson Learning™

TABLE: Characteristics of the seven crystal system
Crystal Structure
 The Crystal Structure of Metals
• 3 basic patterns of atomic arrangement in metal:

Body-centered cubic (bcc) Face-centered cubic (fcc) Hexagonal close packed (hcp)
•
Crystal Structure
Most commercially important metals solidify into one of
the three lattice types:
• Examples
– Body - centered cubic (BCC): e.g. Cr, Fe, Mn.
– Face-centered cubic (FCC): e.g. Ag, Au, Pd, Al, Ca, Cu,
Ni
– Hexagonal closed - pack (HCP): e.g. Ti, Zn, Mg, Cd, Zr

a unit cell
 Body Centered Cubic (BCC) Crystal Structure

• The unit cell for BCC consists

of a sphere (atom) at the
centre of cube with 8 other
spheres at the corners of the
cube & touching the central
sphere.
• BCC has 2 atoms per unit
cell.
2 atoms/unit cell: 1 center + 8 corners x 1/8
 Figure: (a)
Illustration
showing sharing of
face and corner
atoms. (b) The
models for simple
cubic (SC), body
centered cubic
(BCC), and face-
centered cubic
(FCC) unit cells,
assuming only one
atom per lattice
point.

(c) 2003 Brooks/Cole Publishing / Thomson Learning™

 Body Centered Cubic (BCC) Crystal Structure

• If the atoms in the BCC unit cell are considered to be

spherical, an atomic packing factor (APF) can be
calculated by using the following equation:

Atomic packing factor (APF) = Volume of atoms in

unit cell / volume
of unit cell
 BCC Unit Cell

atoms
4 volume
unit cell 2 ( 3 a/4 ) 3
3 atom
APF =
volume
a3
unit cell
 BCC
•APF for the BCC = 68, i.e. 68 percent of the volume of BCC unit cell
is occupied by atoms and the remaining 32 percent is empty space.
•Therefore packing is not so close as compared to FCC or HCP.
•Many metals such as iron, Chromium, tungsten, molybdenum and
vanadium have the BCC crystal structure at room temp.
• Compared to materials with other structures, BCC metals tend to
be high strength.
 Face-centered-cubic (FCC) crystal structure
• In FCC, there is one lattice point at each corner of the cube and
one at the centre of each cube face.
• FCC has 4 atoms per unit cell.
• The atoms in the FCC crystal structure are packed as closed
together as possible.
4 atoms/unit cell: 6 face x 1/2 + 8 corners x 1/8
FCC Unit Cell
 Atomic Packing Factor: FCC
• APF for a face-centered cubic structure = 0.74
maximum achievable APF

2a
Close-packed directions:
length = 4R = 2a

atoms
4 volume
unit cell 4 ( 2 a/4 ) 3
3 atom
APF =
volume
a3
unit cell
34