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Crystal Lattice

Ionic compounds in their solid state are composed of ions that are packed as repeating arrays called ionic or crystal lattice. This lattice is a continuous three-dimensional network. See an example for NaCl in Figure 1.

The image is split into two sections. On the left, is a photo of a salt crystal. The salt crystal is a roughly textured ball, made up of many pointy and angular cubes layered together. The individual cubes have a very defined regular shape, but their layered arrangement is irregular. On the right, is a diagram of the zoomed-in ionic structure of the salt crystal. Small and large balls represent the sodium cations and chloride anions. The ions stack together to form a cube. To keep the overall charge of the ionic compound neutral, the cations and anions stack in an alternating pattern. Overall, this shows how the regular structure of the ionic lattice, which is a cube, affects the physical structure of the salt crystal, which is made up of many cubes.

Figure 1: Crystal lattice of Sodium Chloride (NaCl) (Image by Blausen Medical Communications, Inc.)

Referred from:

Article
Ionic Bonding