GIF of Scandium Fluoride (IMAGE)

DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory

GIF of Scandium Fluoride

Caption

This animation shows how solid crystals of scandium fluoride shrink upon heating. While the bonds between scandium (green) and fluorine atoms (blue) remain relatively rigid, the fluorine atoms along the sides of the cubic crystals oscillate independently, resulting in a wide range of distances between neighboring fluorine atoms. The higher the temperature, the greater the buckling in the sides of the crystals leading to the overall contraction (negative thermal expansion) effect.

Credit

Brookhaven National Laboratory

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