Resources written by Chas McCaw for sixth form chemistry teaching and beyond.
General interest:
Graphite Buckminsterfullerene Ice White phosphorus Benzene Cyclohexane AdamantaneCubic:
Sodium Caesium chloride Polonium Copper Halite Fluorite Antifluorite Zinc blende DiamondNon-cubic:
Hexagonal:
Magnesium WurtziteTetragonal:
RutileTrigonal:
α-quartzTriclinic:
Copper(II) sulfateOrthorhombic:
α-SulfurMonoclinic:
β-SulfurSince the geometry around the sodium ions is octahedral, the structure can be represented as a three-dimensional array of corner-sharing octahedra. The structure to the left shows the octahedra of chloride ions around each sodium ion. The octahedra are coloured grey as they have sodium at the centre. Due to the equivalence of the sodium and chloride positions in the lattice, a similar arrangement is formed when the structure is constructed in terms of chloride octahedra.