Question

Which of the following lattices has the highest packing efficiency?
(i) simple cubic
(ii) body-centred cubic
(iii) hexagonal close-packed lattice.

Answer 1

The packing efficiency in lattice is as follows:

(i) Simple cubic $=52.4$ %

(ii) Body-centerd cubic $=68$ %

(iii) Hexagonal close packing $=74$ %

Hence the maximum packing efficiency is of hexagonal packing lattice.