The mass of an atom present in unit cell is 4.4 10⁻²³ ~g and the product of density and volume of unit cell is 1.792 10⁻²² ~g . What is the type of cubic unit cell?

Step-by-step solution

The unit cell mass is given as 1.792 10⁻²² g, which equals the product of the number of atoms per unit cell ( Z ) and the mass per atom ( 4.4 10⁻²³ g). The number of atoms per unit cell is therefore: Z = 1.792 10⁻²² 4.4 10⁻²³ = 4.0727 4 Face-centred cubic unit cells contain 4 atoms per unit cell, while simple cubic and body-centred cubic contain 1 and 2 atoms respectively. The unit cell is face-centred cubic.