The French mathematician Bravais from geometrical considerations that there can be only 14 different ways in which similar points can be arranged in three dimensional space. Thus, the total number of space lattices belonging to all the seven Bravais Lattice crystal system put together is only 14. These are known as Bravias Lattice.
Atomic packing factor of FCC and BCC crystal: In the FCC unit cell illustrated, the atoms touch one another across a face-diagonal the length of which is 4 R. Since the unit cell is a cube, its volume is a3, where a is the cell edge length.
From the right triangle on the face,
a2 + a2 = (4R)2
a = ∫8R = 2R∫2
The FCC unit cell volume Vc may be computed from
Vc = a3 = (2R∫2)3 = 16R3∫2 ANS.
The APF (atomic packing factor) is defined as the function of solid sphere volume in a unit cell.
APF= Total sphere volume = Vs
Total unit cell volume = Vc
Both the total sphere and unit cell volumes may be calculated in terms of the atomic radius R.
Face-centred Cubic (F.C.C.) structure
The Volume for a sphere = 4/3 πR³
Since there are 4 atoms per FCC unit cell
Number of atoms in all six faces = ½ x 6 =3
Number of atoms in all corners = 1/8 x 8 = 1
Total number of atoms = 3 + 1 = 4
The total FCC sphere volume is
Vs = 4 x 4/3 πR³ = 16/3 πR³
The total unit cell volume is Vc = 16 R³ ∫2
The atomic packing factor is
APF = Vs/Vc = 16/3 πR³/16 R³∫2 = 0.74
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