Binary Compounds

Abstract

In this and the following chapter, we will describe the most important simple (binary) crystal structures found in ceramic materials. You need to know the structures we have chosen because many other important materials have the same structures and because much of our discussion of point defects, interfaces, and processing will use these materials as illustrations. Some, namely FeS₂, TiO₂, CuO, and Cu₂O, are themselves less important materials and you would not be the only ceramist not to know their structure. We include these oxides in this discussion because each one illustrates a special feature that we find in oxides. These structures are just the tip of the topic known as crystal chemistry (or solid-state chemistry); the mineralogist would have to learn these, those in Chapter 7, and many more by heart. In most examples we will mention some applications of the chosen material.

In traditional ceramic oxides, the anion is usually the larger ion, so we often think of a ceramic crystal structure as a three-dimensional (3D) array of anions with cations inserted in the interstices. Whether or not a particular structure is stable depends on Pauling’s rules. We first review some of the important lattices, paying particular attention to the polyhedra that are formed by groups of anions. As the variety of ceramics being used in today’s high-technology environment increases, some of the above assumptions cease to be valid. In certain oxides, the cation is larger than the anion and covalently bonded oxides and nonoxides cannot be treated as arrays of hard spheres. So we learn the rules and try to understand the exceptions. The concept of crystals being arrays of polyhedra will still work whether the bonding is ionic or covalent and whether the anion or the cation is larger.

In this and the following chapter, the xyz-axes in the schematics of cubic crystal structures lie along the cube edges; the length of the cube edge is the lattice parameter.