An Example of Body-Centered Cubic Crystal Structure: The Atomium in Brussels as an Educative Tool for Introductory Materials Chemistry

作者：Pinto Gabriel^*

来源：Journal of Chemical Education, 2012, 89(7): 921-924.

DOI：10.1021/ed200841y

• First-Year Undergraduate/General
• General Public
• High School/Introductory Chemistry
• Inorganic Chemistry
• Public Understanding/Outreach
• Analogies/Transfer
• Problem Solving/Decision Making
• Crystals/Crystallography
• Materials Science
• Metals

When students are introduced to the ways in which atoms are arranged in crystal structures, transposing the textbook illustrations into three-dimensional structures is difficult for some of them. To facilitate this transition, this article describes an approach to the study of the structure of solids through a well-known monument, the Atomium in Brussels, Belgium. After a brief introduction to this monument (it represents an unit cell of iron crystal, magnified 165 billion times), a series of questions is proposed to address various topics such as crystal lattice, unit cell, body-centered cube structure, metallic crystals, typical trends for atomic radii in the periodic table, introductory solid structure calculations, and rounding in calculations. Furthermore, this exercise promotes spatial vision in students. The question-answer approach engages the students and most of them gain an appreciation for the three-dimensional structures. Students have expressed keen interest in this type of %26quot;tangible%26quot; chemistry where a concrete example of everyday life helps them to better understand chemistry topics.

• 出版日期2012-7