What is a covalent crystal?
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Answer:
Covalent crystal
CRYSTALLOGRAPHY
Alternative Title: network solid
LEARN ABOUT THIS TOPIC in these articles:
chemical bonding
crystal bonding
In chemical bonding: Network solids
There exists a class of solids called network solids in which the bonding is essentially due to a network of covalent bonds that extends throughout the solid. Such solids are hard and rigid and have high melting points because the crystal is like…
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properties
In solid
Covalent crystals are hard, frequently brittle materials such as diamond, silicon, and silicon carbide. In the simpler, monatomic types (e.g., diamond), each atom is surrounded by a number of atoms equal to its valence. Molecular crystals are substances that have relatively weak intermolecular binding, such…
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Steno's law
CRYSTALLOGRAPHY
WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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Steno’s law, statement that the angles between two corresponding faces on the crystals of any solid chemical or mineral species are constant and are characteristic of the species; this angle is measured between lines drawn perpendicular to each face. The law, also called the law of constancy of interfacial angles, holds for any two crystals, regardless of size, locality of occurrence, or whether they are natural or man-made.
Steno's law
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RELATED TOPICS
Crystal
The relationship was discovered in 1669 by the Danish geologist Nicolaus Steno, who noted that, although quartz crystals differ in appearance from one to another, the angles between corresponding faces are always the same. In 1772 a French mineralogist, Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de l’Isle, confirmed Steno’s findings and further noted that the angles are characteristic of the substance. A French crystallographer, René-Just Haüy, usually considered the father of crystallography, showed in 1774 that the known interfacial angles could be accounted for if the crystal were made up of minute building blocks that correspond to the present-day unit cells.
LEARN MORE in these related Britannica articles:
René-Just Haüy
René-Just Haüy, French mineralogist and one of the founders of the science of crystallography.…
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Answer:
covalent crystal are the solids in which the lattice points are occupied by atoms that are covalently bonded to other atoms at neighbouring lattice sites .....