Why is a crystal lattice structure important?

Answer 1

Yes, they do help become richer.. but they are only used as jullery for party's, this is not much use. SO CRYSTALS ARE NOT IMPORTANT!! (only if you like jullery)

I do not agree with you. Crystals are very important and you use them daily. Simple examples are salt and sugar. More complex crystals that we use everyday for example are liquid crystals for displays on your calculator, TV ect. These crystals are unique because they have some solid properties and some liquid properties. If you look on the back of any product you will find a list of compounds. To determine the structure of that compound one of the most sure ways is to obtain a crystal structure of the pure compound (although this is not always possible due to nature of some compounds). This allows you a visual picture of the orientation of the atoms in the molecule with respect to one another and helps scientist understand the nature and pottential of that compound. Once you have identified a compound you can find its application for example the list you see on the back of a product. Each one of those compounds was identified and characterized and an application was found.

Thus without certain types of crystals you may be a bit poorer but life would be very difficult and boring without crystals.

If you would like to know more about crystals and crystal structure you can visit sites like ACS publishing, RCS ect. Which have journals just dedicated to solving crystal structure.

Answer 2

Look at Graphite and Diamond: both are made up of pure carbon. However, they differ in the form of lattice structures of the crystals, thus changing their properties. That is the importance of a lattice crystal structure.