Molecular Solid State Physics

This book is about the new materials now being created in order to fulfil specific scientific needs. This is one of the key fields within the new discipline of Molecular Engineering. The principles governing the structure of solids and their surfaces are described with examples drawn from ionic crystals, molecular crystals, valence crystals and alloys. Although many of the topics are related to Solid State Physics they are here introduced from a chemical rather than a physical point of view in order to open up the subject to a wider audience. The main text tries to remain simple by exploiting fully a modest number of theoretical ideas. An important aim of the text is to bridge the gap between the average chemistry degree course and the rapidly expanding research literature of the subject.