Crystal Chemistry. From Basics to Tools for Materials Creation. By Gérard Ferey. World Scientific, 2017, 264 pp. Softcover ISBN 978-981-3144-19-4, price GBP 46.00, hardback, ISBN 978-981-3144-18-7, price GBP 81.00

According to the Preface, ‘the book aims to be useful for undergraduates’, and its title and the list of contents give the impression that this is a textbook for advanced students of chemistry. But that is not the case. Essential concepts of crystal chemistry are not covered at all, such as ionic radius ratios, Pauling’s rules, lattice energy, phase diagrams and chemical bonding in solids. Some classes of compounds such as silicates, intermetallics and Zintl phases are completely missing. The conception is not a general building up of knowledge in crystal chemistry, but a notional view at coordination polyhedra and their joining with increasing complexity, reflecting predilections of the author and culminating in results of the author’s research. It is inconsistent that some basic crystallographic terms are explained, such as rotations, rotoinversions, screw rotations and glide reflections, while other crystallographic topics are expected to be known. The terms ‘symmetry operation’ and ‘symmetry element’ are used frequently, but not explained, and sometimes confused. Crystallographic group theory, cell settings and cell transformations are not a subject. Point groups and their symbols are not really explained and it is (wrongly) claimed that their number is restricted to 32. Space groups, Hermann–Mauguin symbols and Miller indices are explained in a rather terse way. Rotation axes are termed A2, A3, . . . and rotoinversion axes A 3, A 4, . . . in lieu of the usual symbols. The use of mathematics is restricted to the calculation of interatomic distances. Chapter 1 begins with Platonic and Archimedean polyhedra and how they are joined in simple crystal structures (detailed geometric data follow in an appendix). The primitive cubic packing and the close-packings of spheres are explained together with their interstices. An approach that is repeatedly used throughout the book is to insert atoms at the points of contact of the spheres; this is called a decoration or a substitution of joined polyhedra for spheres, ‘keeping the topology’. ‘Topology’ is the all-dominant term in the book, and yet never explained, now and then ambiguous and not quite in accordance with its mathematical definition. The elaborate Chapter 3 (45 pages) gives instructions on how to interpret perspective drawings, projections and crystal data (lattice parameters, atomic coordinates including symmetry-equivalent positions). This illuminating chapter begins with a lengthy explanation of the rutile structure, which is described as a distorted hexagonal arrangement of ‘oxygens’ with octahedral interstices occupied by Ti atoms. It is not mentioned that the packing of the oxygen atoms is a tetragonal close packing with the coordination number 11. The structure types of CaF2, NaCl, NiAs, cubic and hexagonal ZnS, -Al2O3, -Ga2O3, CdCl2, CdI2, MgAl2O4 (spinel), K2NiF4, ReO3, MoO3, tungsten bronzes and several others are explained in detail. That includes their space groups, lattice parameters, atomic coordinates, coordination polyhedra, many figures and the description as packings of spheres with occupied interstices. Ample attention is given to the kinds of connectivity of the coordination polyhedra. The superconductors YBa2Cu3O8– serve as examples to explain the concept of vacancies. ISSN 2052-5206