MATSE 400: Crystal Chemistry

Textbook: Crystal Chemistry and Refractivity by Howard W. Jaffe, Class Notes

Faculty: Susan Trolier-McKinstry

Description

This course is an introduction to the principles of crystal chemistry and its use in describing structure-property relations in solids. The principles that govern assembly of crystal and glass structures are described, models of many of the technologically important crystal structures are built, and the impact of structure on the various fundamental mechanisms responsible for many physical properties are discussed.

Course Topics

1. Raw materials and their chemical formulae
   
2. Chemical Bonding, electronegativity
   
3. Fundamentals of crystallography: crystal systems, Miller indices, symmetry elements, bond lengths and radii, theoretical density
   
4. Crystal and glass structure prediction: Pauling’s and Zachariasen’s rules
   
5. Phase Diagrams and crystal chemistry (including solid solutions)
   
6. Imperfections: (including defect chemistry and line defects)
   
7. Phase transformations
   
8. Structure – property relations: Neumann’s law: melting point, mechanical properties (hardness, slip, cleavage, elastic moduli), wetting, thermal properties (thermal expansion specific heat, thermal conductivity), diffusion, ionic conductivity, refractive index, absorption, color, dielectrics and ferroelectrics, magnetism
   
9. Introduction to crystal structures of representative metals, semiconductors, polymers, and ceramics

Course Objectives

1. To identify important raw materials and minerals as well as their names and chemical formulae.
   
2. To describe the crystal structure of important materials and to be able to build their atomic models.
   
3. To learn the systematics of crystal and glass chemistry.
   
4. To understand how physical and chemical properties are related to crystal structure and microstructure.
   
5. To appreciate the engineering significance of these ideas and how they relate to industrial products: past, present, and future.

Course Outcomes

1. Students should be able to write and balance chemical formulae for commercially important raw and engineered materials.
   
2. Students should be able to build important crystal structures and understand the impact of bond length,coordination, and symmetry on the resultant physical properties.
   
3. Given an initial chemistry, students should be able to apply Pauling’s rules to determine anion and cation coordinations, and should be able to make intelligent suppositions about the resulting crystal structure. Similarly, on the basis of Zachariasen’s rules, students should be able to assess the likelihood of easy glass formation in a particular materials system.
   
4. Students should understand the rules governing the stability of crystal structures as a function of temperature, pressure, and composition changes.
   
5. Students should understand the basic mechanisms controlling a wide variety of physical properties, and should be able to correlate this information with crystal structures to predict materials properties.
   
6. Students should begin to understand how materials are chosen and designed for particular engineering applications.

Assessment Tools

1. Midterm and final exams
   
2. Weekly quizzes in lab class
   
3. Problem sets utilizing crystallography software, which allow student collaboration.