The Halite Structure

Sodium chloride is a specific example of a common structure type known as the "halite" structure. This lattice may also be viewed as a FCC lattice of anions (Z = 4), with smaller cations occupying all Oh holes (or vice versa).  By identifying and counting all of the Oh holes, it can be shown that the number of cations wholly within the unit cell is also 4.

(crossed stereo pair)
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