NaCl planes.
You can easy break NaCl crystall along (100), (010) and
(001) equivalent planes (blue color). But you cannot break it
along (110) plane (red color) because you have to destroy more atomic
bonds (black lines). (111) atomic plane (white color) contains charged
atoms of one kind (Na+ or Cl -) and
you cannot break crystal along this direction due to electrostatic attraction.
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Crystal models
updated 18 Oct 2011