Why is HCP more common than FCC in elemental compositions?

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SUMMARY

Hexagonal Close Packed (HCP) structures are more prevalent in elemental compositions compared to Face Centered Cubic (FCC) despite both having the same packing fraction of 74%. This trend is particularly evident in the Lanthanoids and Actinoids, which predominantly exhibit HCP structures. Excluding these groups, the distribution of HCP and FCC elements is nearly equal, indicating that the preference for HCP in certain elements may be influenced by quantum mechanical factors rather than simple geometric considerations.

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  • Understanding of crystal lattice structures, specifically HCP and FCC.
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gibbo
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This may be obvious but since the packing fraction for both hexagonal close packed and face centered cubic is the same (74% i believe) why is HCP more common in elemental compositions?
 
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Well, I don't really know, but I noticed that a lot of the Lanthanoids and Actinoids are HCP, and if you exclude those two sections, the number of HCP and FCC elements are almost the same.

This is the sort of question that I doubt there is an intuitive answer to...it's all quantum mechanics!
 

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