Introduction to Structural Chemistry

A concise description of models and quantitative parameters in structural chemistry and their interrelations, with 280 tables and >3000 references giving the most up-to-date experimental data on energy characteristics of atoms, molecules and crystals (ionisation potentials, electron affinities, bond energies, heats of phase transitions, band and lattice energies), optical properties (refractive index, polarisability), spectroscopic characteristics and geometrical parameters (bond distances and angles, coordination numbers) of substances in gaseous, liquid and solid states, in glasses and melts, for various thermodynamic conditions. Systems of metallic, covalent, ionic and van der Waals radii, effective atomic charges and other empirical and semi-empirical models are critically revised. Special attention is given to new and growing areas: structural studies of solids under high pressures and van der Waals molecules in gases. The book is addressed to researchers, academics, postgraduates and advanced-course students in crystallography, materials science, physical chemistry of solids.

Structural chemistry often suffers from fragmented approach, progressing either from the aggregate state (crystallography vs isolated molecule structure), from the method of investigation (X-ray diffraction, spectroscopy, compressibility, etc.) or from the type of substances (inorganic, organometallic, organic). The present book attempts to bridge these gaps, linking the properties of atoms, radicals, molecules, clusters, nano-particles, liquids, solutions, melts, glasses and crystalline solids. Geometrical structure is considered in its indissoluble unity with energetic properties and polarisability (and hence optical properties), using electronegativity as a unifying concept.

Recent decades brought abundant and more precise structural measurements, as well as opening of whole new areas, e.g. non-classical crystals, high-pressure crystallography, real-time study of phase transitions, nanomaterials with their intricate size-effects, fullerenes and clusters, van der Waals molecules. The book gives an outline of these new developments, while showing that the old concepts and techniques, from atomic radii to refractometry, are still useful.

Features:

• A survey of structural chemistry across different aggregate states (gas, liquid, glass, crystalline, nano-materials)
• Conceptual and numerical links between geometrical, thermodynamic, electronic and optical properties
• Up-to-date reference data, systematically presented and tabulated
• Critically revised tables of standard parameters - bond distances and energies, atomic radii, equations of state, etc.