What is a Crystal Lattice ?

Crystal Lattice is the solid formed by the force of attractions between the charged ions; anions and the cations. It is basically the three dimensional pattern or arrangement of  the atoms inside the crystal.

Since cations are positively charged ions and anions are negatively charged ions, they are strongly attracted to each other. This attraction is very strong that the ions may bond together into a solid called a crystal lattice. The bond that holds the two oppositely-charged ions is called an ionic bond.

Types of Crystal Lattice Structures:

Crystal Lattice exist in seven crystal lattice structures which are: 

• Cubic
• Monoclinic
• Triclinic
• Hexagonal
• Tetragonal
• Orthorhombic
• Rhombohedral

Each of these crystal lattice structures have unique variants which make the total number of crystal lattice structures 14 Bravais Lattices. The cubic crystal lattice structure has a symmetrical shape and is considered the simplest and most symmetrical form of crystal lattices.

The 3 types of cubic crystal lattice structures are: 

• Simple Cubic (SC)
• Body-Centered Cubic (CBC)
• Face Centered Cubic (FCC).

Sodium Chloride Crystal Lattice:

An example is the Sodium Chloride – salt – molecule NaCl, since the Sodium (Na) became a cation when it lost an electron to give it to the Chloride atom (Cl) which hence became a negatively charged anion. The ionic bond is the force that is keeping the anions and cations in the solid shape of crystal lattice form.

crystal lattice formed by force of attraction between anions and cations ionic bond

You can also read about Molecular Geometry.