page_title: Crystallite
hierarchical_section_title: Crystallite
caption_attribution_description: English: Compilation of images displaying polycrystalline structures composed of small crystals. List of used images—clockwise from top left: Microscopic view of malleable iron Grain-oriented electrical steel Polycristalline silicon solar cells Hot-dip galvanized metal surface using zinc Microscopic view of acid etched metal highlighting grain boundaries
context_page_description: A crystallite is a small or even microscopic crystal which forms, for example, during the cooling of many materials. The orientation of crystallites can be random with no preferred direction, called random texture, or directed, possibly due to growth and processing conditions. Fiber texture is an example of the latter. Crystallites are also referred to as grains. The areas where crystallites meet are known as grain boundaries. Polycrystalline materials, or polycrystals, are solids that are composed of many crystallites of varying size and orientation.
  Most inorganic solids are polycrystalline, including all common metals, many ceramics, rocks, and ice. The extent to which a solid is crystalline has important effects on its physical properties. Sulfur, while usually polycrystalline, may also occur in other allotropic forms with completely different properties. Although crystallites are referred to as grains, powder grains are different, as they can be composed of smaller polycrystalline grains themselves.
context_section_description: A crystallite is a small or even microscopic crystal which forms, for example, during the cooling of many materials. The  orientation of crystallites can be random with no preferred direction, called random texture, or directed, possibly due to growth and processing conditions. Fiber texture is an example of the latter. Crystallites are also referred to as grains. The areas where crystallites meet are known as grain boundaries. Polycrystalline materials, or polycrystals, are solids that are composed of many crystallites of varying size and orientation. 
  Most inorganic solids are polycrystalline, including all common metals, many ceramics, rocks, and ice. The extent to which a solid is crystalline (crystallinity) has important effects on its physical properties. Sulfur, while usually polycrystalline, may also occur in other allotropic forms with completely different properties. Although crystallites are referred to as grains, powder grains are different, as they can be composed of smaller polycrystalline grains themselves.
  While the structure of a (single) crystal is highly ordered and its lattice is continuous and unbroken, amorphous materials, such as glass and many polymers, are non-crystalline and do not display any structures, as their constituents are not arranged in an ordered manner. Polycrystalline structures and paracrystalline phases are in-between these two extremes.
caption: Polycrystalline structures composed of crystallites. Clockwise from top left:
  a) malleable iron
  b) electrical steel without coating
  c) solar cells made of multicrystalline silicon
  d) galvanized surface of zinc
  e) micrograph of acid etched  metal highlighting grain boundaries
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