Dec 13, 2017
Schottky defects ( 2 ) are a type of vacancy point defects that occur in ionic compounds. They consist of grouped vacancies, that together keep the charge of the compound neutral. For example, a missing Cl- in the NaCl structure would make the material more positive as a result, but if it is paired with a Na+ vacancy, the resulting defect does not create a charge imbalance in the material.
These types of defects occur most often in highly ionic, highly coordinated compounds that have atoms of similar sizes, such as salts like NaCl or AgBr, or oxides with the Fluorite structure such as CeO2 or UO2.