E-raamat: Crystallography of Modular Materials

Analyzing the structural modularity of crystalline structures is particularly useful for the description and classification of known structures, modeling of unknown structures based on known modules, and tailoring new materials and tuning their properties, yet the relevant concepts of modular methods are spread across the literature and have not been systematized and organically analyzed in a single source until this attempt by Ferraris (crystallography, U. of Turin, Italy), Makovicky (mineralogy, U. of Copenhagen, Denmark), and Merlino (crystallography, U. of Pisa, Italy). They begin with a discussion of twinning at unit-cell scale and then describe order/disorder theory, which deals with those inorganic and molecular structures based on both ordered and disordered stacking of one or more layers. They then present chapters on polytypes and polytype categories and the application of modularity to structure description and modeling, finally concluding with a chapter that develops the theory of twinning for solving structural problems (with worked examples). This is a paperbound edition of a work first published in 2004. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

This is the first book to provide a comprehensive treatment of theories and applications in the rapidly expanding field of the crystallography of modular materials. Molecules are the natural modules from which molecular crystalline stuctures are built. Most inorganic structures, however, are infinite arrays of atoms and some kinds of surrogate modules, e.g. coordination polyhedra, are usually used to describe them. In recent years the attention has been focused on complex modules as the basis for a systematic description of polytypes and homologous/polysomatic series (modular structures). This representation is applied to the modelling of unknown structures and understanding nanoscale defects and intergrowths in materials. The Order/Disorder (OD) theory is fundamental to developing a systematic theory of polytypism, dealing with those structures based on both ordered and disordered stacking of one or more layers. Twinning at both unit-cell and micro-scale, together with disorder, causes many problems, "demons", for computer-based methods of crystal stucture determination. This book develops the theory of twinning with the inclusion of worked examples, converting the "demons" into useful indicators for unravelling crystall strutures. In spite of the increasing use of the concepts of modular crystallography for charaterising, understanding and tailoring technological crystalline materials, this is the first book to offer a unified treatment of the results, which are spread across many different journals and original papers published over the last twenty years.