Body-Centered Cubic (BCC) Structure

The body-centered cubic unit cell has atoms at each of the eight corners of a cube (like the cubic unit cell) plus one atom in the center of the cube (left image below). Each of the corner atoms is the corner of another cube so the corner atoms are shared among eight unit cells. It is said to have a coordination number of 8. The bcc unit cell consists of a net total of two atoms; one in the center and eight eighths from corners atoms as shown in the middle image below (middle image below). The image below highlights a unit cell in a larger section of the lattice.

The bcc arrangement does not allow the atoms to pack together as closely as the fcc or hcp arrangements. The bcc structure is often the high temperature form of metals that are close-packed at lower temperatures. The volume of atoms in a cell per the total volume of a cell is called the packing factor. The bcc unit cell has a packing factor of 0.68.

This model is hand made in the USA by Klinger Educational Products. This is a permanent structure. We only use grade A materials. The 1 inch balls are made of hard Maplewood that includes an enameled painted finish. Polished steel rods are used to connect the wooden balls together.

Body-Centered Cubic contains  35 -  1 inch balls.