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Chemistry · Glossary

What is Crystal system, Bravais lattice, lattice centring?

Also known as: crystal system · lattice centring · Bravais lattice

Definition 9.2 University Chemistry — Year 3 · Chapter 9 — Crystallography and X-ray Diffraction

Lattices are grouped by their symmetry into seven crystal systems (triclinic, monoclinic, orthorhombic, tetragonal, trigonal, hexagonal, cubic). A cell may hold lattice nodes only at its corners (primitive, P) or also at its centre (body-centred, I), at the centres of all faces (face-centred, F) or of one pair of faces (base-centred, C), or along a body diagonal (rhombohedral, R): this is its lattice centring. The 14 distinct combinations of a system and a centring are the Bravais lattices.

The three cubic Bravais lattices: primitive (nodes at the corners), body-centred (plus the centre, red) and face-centred (plus the six face centres, red). Their cells hold 1, 2 and 4 nodes.
The three cubic Bravais lattices: primitive (nodes at the corners), body-centred (plus the centre, red) and face-centred (plus the six face centres, red). Their cells hold 1, 2 and 4 nodes.
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