Crystal engineering is a rapidly emerging, cross-disciplinary field that seeks to develop protocols for predicting and controlling the structure and thus the functional properties of solids. Such properties range from the mundane (colour, melting point) to those of great relevance to materials scientists and physicists (polarity, porosity, conductivity). The emergence of the field can be attributed to a corresponding rise in the importance of supramolecular chemistry and its relevance to areas as diverse as polymorphism in pharmaceuticals, nonlinear optics and high Tc superconductors. The crystal engineer needs an understanding of bonding theory, computational chemistry, applied spectroscopy, structural methods, synthesis strategies, and applications of custom-designed solids. This book contains chapters on all these topics, written by internationally recognised experts, in addition to contributions from some of the leading researchers in the field.
