Crystals Essay

The idea of crystal formation stems from a fundamental understanding of crystalline structures. The purpose of this experiment is to evaluate methods used to create crystalline structures, how they occur, and the steps needed to perform such processes. There is evidence that many methods, including slow cooling, reactant diffusion, and solvent diffusions can be used to form crystals. Essentially, the idea is that if a solid is allowed to form slowly and in a structured way, then a crystal will form. The results support this idea, both in the presence of crystals as well as the characteristics of their physical quality. All processes tested resulted in crystals. The crystals formed by slow cooling and solvent diffusion were tested, and showed …show more content…
Foremost, the major difference lays in structure. Amorphous solids have no clear geometric shape, while crystalline solids have a clear, defined, geometric structure, the pattern by which the solid is formed and the basis of each crystal’s structure1. Amorphous solids can be made by rapid cooling. The crystalline structure is more thermodynamically favorable, however these processes take longer to occur. The clear, long-range order of crystals, the result of molecular structure, allows crystals to be grouped according to this structure. These crystalline structures can be formed in ionic solids, where the strong electrostatic attraction between cation and anion is the force which maintains the crystal lattice. Covalent solids are hard and incompressible, compared to the brittle nature of ionic solids, this is because the highly directional bonds of shared electrons hold the lattice structure in place. Metallic solids, however, tend not to be held tightly together. This is the result of low ionization energies, and causes electrons which move freely throughout the structure, leaving unevenly charged spaces, and making these solids malleable. Additionally, molecular solids maintain their structures through weak interactions, and are composed of molecules. Another characteristic of crystalline solids is a sharp melting point, obtained by maintain conformity in structure. Therefore, while crystalline solids have a clear, defined melting point, amorphous solids lend themselves towards a distinct range of temperatures at which they will melt. Additionally, because of their defined and clear structure, crystalline solids can be cleaved along defined paths on a plane, while amorphous solids have no clarity in the breakage of their structures.2 Because of the