Solutions to Mid-term Test of First Semester 2008

SECTION A (50%) 1. Using the Periodic Table provided below, determine the bonding types of the following materials. Explain your answer briefly. (a) CsCl (b) NiAl (c) SiGe (d) Liquid He (8 marks)

Table Q1. The electronegativity values of the elements.

Van der Waals bond 2. Given the atomic weight of copper is 63.55 g/mol, the atomic radius of the copper atom is 0.128 nm and it has a FCC crystal structure. Calculate (a) the lattice parameter a (b) the density in units of g/cm (Note: Avogadros number = 6.02 x 1023 atoms/mol) (10 marks)

(a) For FCC unit cell:

2a = 4 R 4 R 4 0.128 nm a= = = 0.362 nm 2 2
b) n = # of atoms per unit cell = 4 FCC lattice A = Molecular weight = 63.55 g/mol NA = Avogadros number = 6.02 x 1023 atoms/mol Vc = volume of the unit cell = a3

nA / N A 4 63.55 g/mol/6.02x10 23 atoms/mol = = = 8.9 g/cm 3 3 Vc 0.362 10 7 cm

3. Define the following terms with a diagram where appropriate: (a) Close packed plane (b) Burgers vector (c) Interstitial solid solution (d) Screw dislocation

(3 marks) (3 marks) (3 marks) (3 marks)

(a) Close packed plane - the atomic plane of highest possible packing density

(b) Burgers vector defines the lattice distortion associated with a dislocation or equivalent to the unit of slip caused by the motion of a dislocation from one side of the crystal to the other

(c) Interstitial solid solution Impurities atoms fill the voids or interstices among the host atoms. Interstitial alloy: e.g. C in Fe

(d) Screw dislocation - dislocation where the line of the dislocation and the Burgers vector are parallel

4. Find and draw all equivalent planes in the family of {110} in a cubic unit cell and the associated orientation of the coordinates. For example the plane (110) and its orientation of coordinates were draw as the following figure. (10 marks)

5. (a) Identify the Miller Indices for each of the following planes. Show all steps in the identification process. (6 marks) (b) (a) Sketch the crystallographic directions [1 2 Plane A (note: for convenience, use origin O ) x y int. a -a red. - recip 2 -2 Closure = ( 2 2 0 ) or ( 110 ) Plane B x y int. a a red. 1 recip 1 2 Closure = (122)
4

2 ] and [4 0 1] inside the cube. (4 marks) z 0

z a 2

(b)

SECTION B (50%)
6. (a) Define the term bonding energy of a material. The potential energy-separation curves for two engineering materials A and B are shown in Q6. Select the proper material for a crucible which is used at high temperature. Explain your choice. (5 marks)

Fig. Q6. Energy-distance diagram. (b) The curve of potential (E) for secondary bonding can be described as follows:

E=

A B + r r
6

12

where r is the interatomic distance; A and B are constants for attraction and repulsion, respectively. Given the constants for argon : A = 10.37 x 10-78 J m6 and B = 16.16 x 10-135 J m12, calculate (i) the equilibrium bond length ro for Argon (10 marks) (10 marks) (ii) the bond energy Eo for Argon 6(a).

Bonding energy is the energy required to separate two atoms to infinite distance. The component must have high melting temperature for operating at high temperature. Since bond energy Eo is related to melting temp. of material, so material B should be selected because of its high Eo & high melting temp.

(b)

7.

(a) Silica (SiO2) is formed on Si as an electrically insulating layer for microelectronic device. SiO2 is formed by the diffusion of oxygen into Si. At 900
o

C, it takes 5 hours for the oxygen to diffuse to form a 5 x 10-6 m thick layer of (15 marks)

SiO2 on the Si. At this same temperature, what will be the time required for oxygen to diffuse to form a 10 x 10-6 m thick layer of SiO2?
o

(b) If the temperature was reduced by 50 C during the diffusion process in part (a), but all other conditions were held the same, what would happen to the diffusion rate and the thickness of SiO2? Explain qualitatively. (a) (10 marks)

(b) Diffusion rate decreases Thickness decreases