Symmetry and Structures of Crystals

This is a textbook and general reference which describes crystal structures.

It is intended for serious students of solid state chemistry and for interested readers.

It begins with an introduction to the symmetry groups used to describe periodic structures (crystals) and fully explains the crystallographic description of structures.

Crystallographic calculations and cell transformations are treated next.

The discussion proceeds to polyhedra, clusters of polyhedra, two-dimensional nets and layers, sphere and cylinder packings and three-dimensional nets and polyhedra.

Special attention is devoted to the occurrence of these patterns in chemistry and to their use in describing crystal structures.

The final major section of the book is devoted to a description of the more important non-molecular crystal structure types that occur in inorganic chemistry.

Special features of this text are: the integrated treatment of ionic, covalent and intermetallic structures; specially commissioned illustrations; full crystallographic data for hundreds of crystal structures; and many problems illustrating important principles and inviting further exploration. This work is intended for inorganic chemists, materials scientists, mineralogists and condensed matter physicists.