Introduction

 Much of society and technology are underpinned by the solid state sciences. For example;

Computing (data storage, conductors, batteries)
Construction (concrete, steels)
Optics (gems, lasers)
Transport (catalytic converters, fuel cells, strong lightweight materials)
Chemicals (catalysts, sensors)
Medicine (artificial joints, bones, and muscle)

A property of a solid compound is of course determined by the constituent elements. The elements are arranged in a particular structure that may change with temperature, pressure or exposure to light. The structure is determined by the bonding between the constituent elements, which is influenced by radii and relative electronegativities.

As you may appreciate solids can be a complicated business. In common with molecular chemistry (e.g. aromatic substitution) property and structure are inextricably linked. However, in contrast too much of molecular chemistry (except perhaps for big molecules like proteins) 'seeing' the structure can be very difficult.

The motivation for constructing these pages is to help you to visualise 3-D structures.
Interpretation of a 3-D structure from a 2-D representation given in a handout or drawn on a board is not easy for many people. Plastic or wooden models are very useful (and you are encouraged to build structures or look at the ones available in A130). However, the current student budget is limited, and plastic models cannot, for example, give you a perspective of relative atom sizes or packing.

Therefore contained here are many of the structures you will come across in your degree course that can be viewed at your leisure and manipulated to show, for example, atomic radii (unfortunately not ionic radii), particular planes of atoms, and coordination environments.

You are encouraged to browse these pages and try to train yourself to 'see' the relative dispositions of atoms in important structures.