Models Based On Spheres
Robert Hooke proposed a relationship between crystals and the packing of spheres. René Just Haüy argued that the structures of crystals involved regular lattices of repeating units with shapes similar to the macroscopic crystal. Barlow, who jointly developed the theories of space groups, proposed models of crystals based on sphere packings ( ca. 1890).
The binary compounds sodium chloride (NaCl) and caesium chloride (CsCl) have cubic structures but have different space groups. This can be rationalised in terms of close packing of spheres of different sizes. For example, NaCl can be described as close-packed chloride ions (in a face-centered cubic lattice) with sodium ions in the octahedral holes. After the development of X-ray crystallography as a tool for determining crystal structures, many laboratories built models based on spheres. With the development of plastic or polystyrene balls it is now easy to create such models.
Read more about this topic: Molecular Model
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