The Structure of Crystalline and

Amorphous Solids
GROUP 2 PRESENTATION
STRUCTURE OF CRYSTALLIN AND AMORPHOUS
SOLIDS
• In chemistry, we could also contrast and compare solids.
This module will help you become more familiar with the
types of solids and enable you to differentiate their
structure.
 Classes of Solids
• A. Crystalline Solids
•Crystalline solids are composed of a huge number of small crystals with a
definite geometrical shape that makes them rigid and incompressible. A
repeated pattern of arrangement of particles is indicated with the long-range
order of crystals which is shown in the following examples in figure 1.

•Crystalline solids are considered true solids because of their sharp melting
point that once they reach this point they will immediately change into liquid
form. They also have a definite heat of fusion. The amount of heat absorbed
by a unit mass of a given solid at its melting point has the capability to convert
the solid crystal into a liquid.
Properties of
Crystalline Solids
1. Unit cell
The unit cell of crystals is
the basic repeating structural
unit of crystalline solids. Atoms
or molecules are represented
by each sphere and are called
a lattice point that is identically
arranged. This arrangement of
each lattice point occupied by
an atom is the case of most
metals. Figure 2 shows the
shapes of crystal structure.
 The way how the spheres are arranged in layers is shown in figure 3.
Another thing to consider is that crystalline solids show a plane of
symmetry.
2. Stable crystal structure due to intermolecular
forces
• Each crystal of crystalline solids has a well-defined ordered structure in three
dimensions. Their geometric shape is being fixed by the net attractive intermolecular
forces. Ionic forces, covalent bonds, London dispersion forces, hydrogen forces, or
the combination of all these forces help the stability of the crystals.

• Remember that the structure and properties of crystals (melting point, density, and
hardness) are determined by the types of intermolecular forces that hold the particles
together. And once these forces are broken, these crystals become liquid at a
specific
temperature. Right now, we will tackle types of crystalline solids.
Types of crystals
• a. Ionic crystals
• From its name ionic crystal, they are composed of charged particles where the
exact arrangement of ions in a lattice varies according to the size of the ions in the
crystals. Since they are composed of ions, therefore the built electrostatic interaction
is strong. Will this crystal be characterized as hard solids? Yes, the numerous
electrostatic attractions extend throughout the crystal making the crystals hard. Also,
since they are hard crystals their melting points are high, and once they melt and turn
into liquid state, they become good conductors.
• Why solid-state and molten state crystals in this type are poor electrical conductors?
Since they are held firmly and no large space for the ions to move around this is the
cause of making them as non-conductors of electricity.
• Ionic crystals are brittle once they are deformed that cause the attractive forces to be
broken. Examples of these types of ionic crystals are the following compounds in
figure 4.
• b. Metallic crystals
• This type of crystals are held together by electrostatic
force between cations and delocalized electrons. Figure
5 shows that the electrons are weakly attached to the
metal atoms. These weakly bound electrons are called
delocalized electrons that can freely room across the
entire metal. Making this type of crystal good conductor
of electricity and heat, the particles can move freely
through the crystals and causing the transfer of the
kinetic energy.
• Another is that this type of crystals is dense where the atoms are closely
packed making the attractions strong leading to have a high melting point. Also,
this type of crystals is lustrous, meaning they easily absorb and emit light.

• Lastly, they are malleable because the atoms can roll over each other into
new positions without breaking the metallic bond. Examples of such crystals are
gold, aluminum, iron metals, and metallic alloys (steel, brass, and bronze). Figure
6 shows the structure of some metallic crystals.
• c. Molecular crystals
This is a type of crystalline solids where the lattice points are
occupied by molecules and the attractive forced built between the
molecules is London dispersion interaction or hydrogen bond. Their
molecules are packed closely as their size and shape allow. The
three-dimensional lattice brought by hydrogen bond is seen in ice
molecules. In sulfur dioxide (SO2) molecules the predominant
attractive force is dipole-dipole. Other examples of molecular
crystals are iodine (I2), naphthalene Figure 4Figure 5(C10H8), and
sugar (C12H22O11). An example of structure under this type of
crystals is given in figure 7.
• The presence of London dispersion interaction and hydrogen bond would mean
that there are weak intermolecular forces between the molecules. This is why most of
the molecular crystals have low melting points at temperatures below 100°C.

• It is said and proven that a property of molecular crystals is soft and brittle. They are
also poor electrical conductors in solid and molten states because of the absence of
delocalized electrons.
d. Covalent crystals
• The atoms in this type of crystals are bonded covalently. Since they are
bonded covalently, strong intermolecular forces are present that lead to these
molecules to have a very high melting point. And because of the strength of
the forces, there will be no available charged particles to move through the
crystals making it poor conductor of electricity.
• The atoms of this type of crystal can be made of one type of atom, like in the
case of diamond and graphite as plain carbon atoms. Others can be made up
of different atoms such as silicon carbide and quartz. Figure 8 shows
examples of crystals under this type.
B. Amorphous Solids
• This type of solids has a structure that lacks a well-defined shape or regular
three dimensional arrangement of atoms. They are considered pseudo-solids
or super cooled liquids because they can be molded and blown into various
shapes and behave as crystalline at a certain temperature. Glass is the most
versatile material of amorphous solid and are sometimes called supercooled
liquid. If we say supercooled liquid (liquids that have a temperature lower
than its freezing point and that has not solidified). When a glass object
shatters, it does so in a very irregular way because its atoms do not align
themselves or it does not have a plane of symmetry and have physical
properties in all directions, not like crystalline solids that have regular planes
of cleavage.
• Aside from glass we also have gels, rubber, plastics, various polymers, wax,
thin films as good examples of amorphous solids. Amorphous silicon is a
photovoltaic material that is responsible for converting sunlight into electrical
energy. Some naturally occurring amorphous solids have impurities and so
this will let the solid to have a short order of arrangement of molecules.
• In terms of their melting points, they do not have sharp melting points since
they have intermolecular forces weaker than those in crystalline solids.
Meaning, different amounts of thermal energy are needed to overcome these
different interactions. Thus, these solids tend to soften slowly over a wide
temperature range rather than having a well-defined melting point like a
crystalline solid. Figure 9 shows the structures of chalk and glass.
Go chōshu arigatōgozaimashita