Copper has the face centered cubic structure. The coordination number of each ion is :

Options

A. 4
B. 12
C. 14
D. 8

Answer

To determine the coordination number of copper in its face-centered cubic (FCC) structure, we can follow these steps:

### Step 1: Understand the Face-Centered Cubic (FCC) Structure
In a face-centered cubic structure, atoms are located at each of the corners of the cube and at the center of each face. This arrangement is crucial for understanding how many nearest neighbors each atom has.

**Hint:** Remember that in FCC, atoms are located at both the corners and the face centers of the cube.

### Step 2: Identify the Nearest Neighbors
The coordination number is defined as the number of nearest neighboring atoms surrounding a central atom. In the FCC structure, each atom is surrounded by other atoms.

**Hint:** Visualize the arrangement of atoms in the FCC structure to see how many atoms are directly adjacent to a single atom.

### Step 3: Count the Nearest Neighbors
In the FCC structure, each atom has:
- 4 atoms from the face centers (one on each of the four faces that share the corner atom).
- 8 corner atoms (each corner atom is shared among 8 adjacent cubes, but contributes to the coordination of the central atom).

When you add these together, you find that each atom in the FCC structure is surrounded by 12 other atoms.

**Hint:** Use a model or diagram of the FCC structure to help visualize the arrangement and count the surrounding atoms.

### Step 4: Conclusion
Thus, the coordination number of each ion in the face-centered cubic structure of copper is 12.

**Final Answer:** The coordination number of each ion in copper's FCC structure is 12.

---