Each cation in a compound with the CsCl structure is surrounded by eight anions at the corners of a cube. Each anion is surrounded by a cube of cations. The coordination numberof these ions is eight. The coordination geometry is cubic. (Remember that ions in drawings like this are smaller than those in actual crystals. In a crystal, near neighbors touch.)

Click on any cation or anion to highlight the coordination polyhedron about that ion. The underlined links above go to definitions.

Some of the components of the cubes around ions in the drawing are located in adjacent unit cells.