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Layers of sulfur atoms that do not sandwich molybdenum atoms are in direct contact with each other. These like-charged sulfur layers repel each other, and are held together by weak van der Waals forces. A portion of a structure that when repeated by moving it parallel to its edges by the length of an edge generates the entire crystal structure (without overlapping) is called a unit cell. When atoms are located on the corners, edges, or faces of the unit cell, only fractions of those atoms belong in the unit cell. The "unit cell" shown in this animation is actually the smallest collection of spheres that contains a single unit cell.
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