Question

What is the coordination number of atoms in a body-centered cubic structure?

Answer 1

Body-centered cubic structure:

1. In the crystal structure, the number of atoms surrounding and touching a central atom is referred to as the Coordination number.
2. Some metals crystallize in a cubic unit cell with an atom in the center and atoms at all four corners. A body-centered cubic (BCC) solid is the name for this type of solid.
3. The atoms in the corners of a BCC unit cell do not touch one other, but they do make contact with the atom in the middle. A BCC unit cell has two atoms, one-eighth of an atom at each of the eight corners ($8\times \frac{1}{8}=1$ atom from each corner) and one atom in the center.
4. Every atom in this arrangement comes into contact with four atoms in the layer above it and four atoms in the layer below it. As a result, an atom in a BCC structure has an eight-coordination number.

Therefore, the coordination number in body-centered cubic structure is $8$