Crystal defects

Crystal Defects and

Noncrystalline Structure–
Imperfection
 In our pervious Lecture when
discussing Crystals we
ASSUMED PERFECT ORDER

In real materials we find:

Crystalline Defects or lattice irregularity
Most real materials have one or more “errors in perfection”
with dimensions on the order of an atomic diameter to many
lattice sites

Defects can be classification:

1. according to geometry
(point, line or plane)
2. dimensions of the defect
 Forming a liquid solution of water and
alcohol. Mixing occurs on the molecular
scale.

We can define this

mixture/solution on a
weight or “atomic”
basis

A similar discussion
can apply to
“mixtures” of metals
– called alloys
Crystal defects and non-crystalline structure-
Imperfections
Point defects
Linear defects
• A perfect crystal, with every atom of the same type in the
correct position, does not exist. All crystals have some
defects. Defects contribute to the mechanical properties
of metals.
• Adding alloying elements to a metal is one way of
introducing a crystal defect. Nevertheless, the term
“defect” will be used, just keep in mind that crystalline
defects are not always bad. There are basic classes of
crystal defects:
• point defects, which are places where an atom is missing or
irregularly placed in the lattice structure. Point defects
include lattice vacancies, self-interstitial atoms,
substitution impurity atoms, and interstitial impurity
atoms
• linear defects, which are groups of atoms in irregular
positions. Linear defects are commonly called
dislocations.
• planar defects, which are interfaces between homogeneous
regions of the material. Planar defects include grain
boundaries, stacking faults and external surfaces.
 Defects : it that good?
• Plastic : It is important to note at this point that plastic
deformation in a material occurs due to the
movement of dislocations (linear defects).
• Millions of dislocations result for plastic forming
operations such as rolling and extruding. It is also
important to note that any defect in the regular
lattice structure disrupts the motion of dislocation,
which makes slip or plastic deformation more
difficult.
• These defects not only include the point and planer
defects mentioned above, and also other
dislocations. Dislocation movement produces
additional dislocations, and when dislocations run
into each other it often impedes movement of the
dislocations.
• This drives up the force needed to move the
dislocation or, in other words, strengthens the
material.
 Point defects
• Point defects are where an atom is missing
or is in an irregular place in the lattice
structure. Point defects include self
interstitial atoms, interstitial impurity
atoms, substitutional atoms and
vacancies.
• A self interstitial atom is an extra atom that
has crowded its way into an interstitial
void in the crystal structure.
• A substitutional impurity atom is an atom of
a different type than the bulk atoms,
which has replaced one of the bulk
atoms in the lattice.
• impurity atoms are usually within
approximately 15% to the bulk atom. An
example is the zinc atoms in brass. In
brass, zinc atoms with a radius of 0.133
nm have replaced some of the copper
atoms, which have a radius of 0.128 nm.
• Interstitial impurity atoms are much smaller
than the atoms in the bulk matrix and fit
into the open space between the bulk
atoms of the lattice structure. An
example is the carbon atoms that are
added to iron to make steel. Carbon
atoms, with a radius of 0.071 nm, fit
nicely in the open spaces between the
larger (0.124 nm) iron atoms.
 Point Defects – in the solid state
are more predictable
• V a ca n cie s:
-vacant atomic sites in a structure .

Vacancy
distortion
of planes

• S e lf- In te rstitia ls:

-" extra " atoms positioned between atomic sites.

self-
interstitial
distortion
of planes
 Point Defects in Alloys
Two outcomes if impurity (B) added to host (A):
• Solid solution of B in A (i.e., random dist. of point
defects)

OR

Substitutional solid Interstitial solid

soln. soln.
(e.g., Cu in Ni) (e.g., C in Fe)
• Solid solution of B in A plus particles of a new
phase (usually for a larger amount of B)
Second phase particle
--different composition
--often different structure .
Solid solution of nickel in copper shown
along a (100) plane. This is a substitutional
solid solution with nickel atoms
substituting for copper atoms on fcc atom
sites.
 Imperfections in Solids
•Conditions for substitutional solid solution
• Hume – Rothery rules
•The rules are:

•1. The atomic radii of the solute and solvent atoms

must differ by no more than 15%:

•2. The crystal structures of solute and solvent must

match.
•3. Complete solubility occurs when the solvent and

solute have the same valency.Metals with lower

valency will tend to dissolve in metals with higher
valency.
•4. The solute and solvent should have similar

electronegativity. If the electronegativity difference

is too great, the metals will tend to form
intermetallic compounds instead of solid solutions.
 Hume-Rothery rules
• The Hume-Rothery rules, named after
William Hume-Rothery, are a set of basic rules
describing the conditions under which an element
could dissolve in a metal, forming a solid solution.
There are two sets of rules, one which refers to
substitutional solid solutions, and another which
refers to interstitial solid solutions.
 Imperfections in Solids
• Application of Hume–Rothery rules – Solid
Solutions Element Atomic Crystal Electro- Valence
• Radius Structure nega-
(nm) tivity
• 1. Would you predict Cu 0.1278FCC 1.9 +2
C 0.071
more Al or Ag H 0.046
O 0.060
tobecause
More Al dissolve in Zn?
size is closer and Ag 0.1445FCC 1.9 +1
val. Is higher – but not too much Al 0.1431FCC 1.5 +3
because of structural differences – Co 0.1253HCP 1.8 +2
FCC in HCP Cr 0.1249BCC 1.6 +3
• Fe 0.1241BCC 1.8 +2
Ni 0.1246FCC 1.8 +2
Pd 0.1376FCC 2.2 +2
• 2. More Zn or Al Zn 0.1332HCP 1.6 +2
Surely
• in size
Zn since Cu?is closer thus
causing lower distortion (4% vs 12%)

Table on p. 106, Callister 7e.

Interstitial solid solution applies to carbon in α-
iron. The carbon atom is small enough to fit
with some strain in the interstice (or opening)
among adjacent Fe atoms in this important
steel structure. [This unit-cell structure can be
compared with that shown in Figure 3.4b.]

But the interstitial solubility is quite low since the size mismatch of the
site to the radius of a carbon atom is only about 1/4
Random, substitution solid solution
can occur in Ionic Crystalline
materials as well. Here of NiO in
MgO. The O2− arrangement is
unaffected. The substitution occurs
among Ni2+ and Mg2+ ions.
A substitution solid solution of Al2O3 in MgO is not
as simple as the case of NiO in MgO. The
requirement of charge neutrality in the overall
compound permits only two Al3+ ions to fill every
threeMg2+ vacant sites, leaving oneMg2+ vacancy.
Iron oxide, Fe1− xO with x ≈ 0.05, is an example of
a nonstoichiometric compound. Similar to the
case of Figure 4.6, both Fe2+ and Fe3+ ions
occupy the cation sites, with one Fe2+ vacancy
occurring for every two Fe3+ ions present.
 Linear Defects - Dislocations

• Dislocations are areas were the

atoms are out of position in the
crystal structure. Dislocations are
generated and move when a stress
is applied. The motion of
dislocations allows slip – plastic
deformation to occur.
• Two basic types of dislocations
– the edge dislocation
– the screw dislocation
– hybrid of above
 Edge Dislocations

• can be easily visualized as an extra half-plane of atoms in

a lattice.
• In the process of slipping one plane at a time the
dislocation propagates across the crystal. The
movement of the dislocation across the plane
eventually causes the top half of the crystal to move
with respect to the bottom half. However, only a small
fraction of the bonds are broken at any given time.
Movement in this manner requires a much smaller force
than breaking all the bonds across the middle plane
simultaneously.
 Edge Dislocation
Edge Dislocation
•
 Line Defects
A re ca lle d D islo ca tio n s:
A nd:
• slip b e tw e e n crysta lp la n e s re su lt w h e n d islo ca tio n s
m o ve ,
• th is m o tio n p ro d u ce s p e rm a n e n t ( p la stic )
d eefomrma ti
S ch a ti
coonf. Z in c ( H C P ):
• b e fo re • a fte r te n sile e lo n g a tio n
d e fo rm a tio n
slip steps which
are the physical
evidence of large
numbers of
dislocations
slipping along
the close packed
plane
 Burgers vector

• The Burgers vector, named after Dutch physicist Jan Burgers, is

a vector, often denoted b, that represents the magnitude and
direction of the lattice distortion of dislocation in a
crystal lattice.
• The direction of the vector depends on the plane of dislocation, which is
usually on the closest-packed plane of unit cell. The magnitude is usually
represented by equation:

Trace around the end of the
dislocation plane to form a closed
loop. Record the number of lattice
vectors travelled along each side of
the loop (shown here by the numbers in
the boxes):
In a perfect lattice, trace out the same
path, moving the same number of lattice
vectors along each direction as before.
This loop will not be complete, and the
closure failure is the Burgers vector:
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 Screw Dislocations

• The motion of a screw

dislocation is also a
result of shear stress.
– Motion is
perpendicular to
direction of
stress, rather
than parallel
(edge).
•

• Mixed Dislocations
• Many dislocations have
both screw and edge
components to them
called mixed
dislocations
• makes up most of the
dislocations
encountered in real
life
 Planar Defects
• A disruption of the long-range stacking sequence can
produce two other common types of crystal defects: 1) a
stacking fault and 2) a twin region.
• A change in the stacking sequence over a few atomic
spacings produces a stacking fault whereas a change
over many atomic spacings produces a twin region.
• A stacking fault is a one or two layer interruption in the
stacking sequence of atom planes.
• Example : In hcp ; stacking of ABABABAB become
ABABABCABAB, there is a stacking fault present.
• Or in the fcc : stacking of ABCABCABC become
ABCABCAB_ABCABC as one of the C planes missing.
• Or if stacking of ABABABAB but switches to ABCABCABC for
a period of time before switching back to ABABABAB, a
pair of twin stacking faults is produced. The red region in
the stacking sequence that goes
ABCABCACBACBABCABC is the twin plane
 Stacking arangements
Close packed spheres of the same size in 3D is a little complicated. This packing leads to possibility of two
unique structures, depending on how planes of 2D closest packed spheres are layered. If every other layer is
exactly the same then we has a so called ABABA... structure. If not, then the structure is ABCABCABC...The
figure below shows the difference between these two structures:

The ABABAB structure (panel (b) in the figures above) is called the Hexagonal Closest Packed (hcp)
structure. In this structure, each atom has 12 nearest neighbors and the volume of the spheres fills the
maximum posssible space: 74.04%.
The ABCABC structure is called Face Centered Cubic (fcc). It also has each atom with 12 nearest neighbors and the
atoms fill 74.04% of the available space. The difference in the structure is in the different long ranged order and the unit ce

The (fcc) structure is just one of the structures that is derived from a cubic unit cell (right angles, equal length edges).
(If we allow the edge lengths to be different, but keep the right angles, we create the orthorhombic cells) The Cubic cells are
shown below:
The number of atoms in the unit cell is not the same as the coordination number (number of nearest neighbors).
In the Body Centered Cubic (bcc) structure above the number of atoms in the unit cell is 2 but the number of
nearest neightbors is 8. (The number of gray atoms in the above gives the number of atoms in the unit cell) The (bcc)
structure is not as tightly packed as the (hcp) or (fcc) structures, with the atoms occupying only 68.02% of the
available space.
Planar Defects
 Imperfections in Solids
Dislocations are visible in (T) electron
•

micrographs
The ledge Growth leads to structures with Grain
Boundries The shape and average size or
diameter of the grains for some polycrystalline
specimens are large enough to observe with the
unaided eye. (Macrosocipic examination)
 Optical Microscopy
S in ce G ra in
•b oare
u n dplaner
a rie s...imperfections,
• are more susceptible
to etching,
• may be revealed as
dark lines, polished surface
• relate change in crystal
orientation across surface groove
boundary. grain boundary
( a)
(courtesy of L.C. Smith
and C. Brady, the
National Bureau of
A STM Standards, Washington, DC
[now the National
g ra
sizein Institute of Standards
num ber and Technology,
G - 1 Gaithersburg, MD].)
N= 2
Fe-Cr alloy
number of grains/in2
at 100x ( b)

magnification
ASTM (American Society for testing and Materials)

ASTM has prepared several standard comparison charts, all having different
average grain sizes. To each is assigned a number from 1 to 10, which is termed
the grain size number; the larger this number, the smaller the grains.

VISUAL CHARTS (@100x) each with a number

Quick and easy – used for steel
Grain size no.

No. of grains/square inch

N = 2 G-1

NOTE: The ASTM grain size is related (or

relates) a grain area AT 100x MAGNIFICATION
 Determining Grain Size, using a
micrograph taken at 300x

• We count 14  M 
2
G −1
NM   =2
grains in a 1 in2  100 
area on the M is mag. of image
N M is measured grain count at M
(300x) image now solve for G:
• To report ASTM log( N M ) + 2 ( log ( M ) − log ( 100 ) ) = ( G − 1) log ( 2 )
grain size we ∴
needed a G=
log ( N m ) + 2 log ( M ) − 4
+1
measure of N at log ( 2 )
log ( 14 ) + 2 log ( 300 ) − 4
100x not 300x G= + 1 = 7.98 ≅ 8
0.301
• We need a
conversion
method!
 For this same material, how many
Grains would I expect /in2 at 100x? At
50x?

G −1 8−1
N = 2 = 2 ≅ 128 grains/in (at 100x)
2

Now, how many grain would I expect at 50x?

2 2
8 −1 100   100 
NM = 2 ∗   = 128*  
 M   50 
N M = 128* 2 = 512 grains/in
2 2
Two-dimensional schematics give a comparison of (a) a
crystalline oxide and (b) a non-crystalline oxide. The
non-crystalline material retains short-range order (the
triangularly coordinated building block), but loses long-
range order (crystallinity).