Inorganic Materials Synthesis and Fabrication
Chapter One
Crystallographic and
Microstructural Considerations
The bulk properties of a solid, such as conductivity, magnetism, and second
harmonic generation, hinge on the solid's structure, which, in turn, is normally
that arrangement of a material's fundamental particles (molecules, atoms, or
ions), with the lowest potential energy as a function of all the atomic positions.
We have learned through computational approaches that interatomic potential
energy is a function of short-range, long-range, and many-body interactions. For
molecular-based substances, one must also consider van der Waals interactions,
hydrogen bonds, and capillary and hydrophobic forces. At first glance, these
noncovalent forces may seem of secondary importance, but their influence on
governing the particular structure adopted by a substance, ... read full excerpt from Inorganic Materials Synthesis and Fabrication ebook
