A compound is formed by two elements \mathrm{M} and \mathrm{N}. The element \mathrm{N} forms ccp and atoms of M occupy 1 / 3 r d of tetrahedral voids. What is the formula of the compound?
A compound is formed by two elements \mathrm{M} and \mathrm{N}. The element \mathrm{N} forms ccp and atoms of M occupy 1 / 3 r d of tetrahedral voids. What is the formula of the compound?

Ans: The ccp lattice is formed by the atoms of the element \mathrm{N}.
Here, the number of tetrahedral voids generated is equal to twice the number of atoms of the element \mathrm{N}.
According to the question, the atoms of element M occupy 1 / 3 r d of the tetrahedral voids. Therefore, the number of atoms of \mathrm{M} is equal to 2 \times 1 / 3=2 / 3^{\text {re }} of the number of atoms of \mathrm{N}. Therefore, ratio of the number of atoms of \mathrm{M} to that of \mathrm{N} is \mathrm{M}: \mathrm{N}=(2 / 3): 1=2: 3 Thus, the formula of the compound is \mathrm{M}_{2} \mathrm{~N}_{3}.