Try it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
The unit cell of diamond is a cube with an edge of , and it contains 8 carbon atoms. In diamond the bond joins an atom to its nearest neighbour, which is at a distance of of the edge. Take and . Find the density in g/cm, the C-C bond length in pm, and the percentage of the volume of the cell that the atoms fill. Treat each atom as a sphere that touches its four neighbours, with a radius of half the bond length.
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Step 1. Mass of the cell. .
Step 2. Volume of the cell. .
Step 3. Density. .
Step 4. Bond length. .
Step 5. Space filled. The radius is . Eight atoms fill . The cell is . The fraction is , which is .
Answer: , and .
Check. The density agrees with the value of found by experiment. Only of the space is filled, much less than the of a close-packed metal, because each atom has only four neighbours.
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A fullerene with carbon atoms has edges, 12 pentagons and hexagons, and . The diamond cell holds 8 atoms, with . At equilibrium between two forms, .