Objectives name two types of solids give examples of crystalline and amorphous solids name the three types of cubic unit cells explain what a unit cell is and tell how many atoms are in a unit cell Types of solids Crystalline solids have atoms, molecules or ions arranged in a regular pattern. Sodium chloride is an example of a crystalline solid. These solids have a fundamental building block called a unit cell. The unit cell consists of a set of points that mark out the positions of atoms, ions or molecules. The locations of these points can generate a complete crystal when stacked or repeated in three dimensions.
Amorphous solids have no regular pattern for molecule, atom or ion locations.
Glass and tar are examples of amorphous solids. These types of matrials have NO simple repeated unit cell. The structure is more complicated because they lack the repetitive units. These three cubic unit cells illustrate the regularity in crystal lattice structures. The repetition of these unit cells produces a total solid.