D. Michael P. Mingos – författare

As 2019 has been declared the International Year of the Periodic Table, it is appropriate that Structure and Bonding marks this anniversary with two special volumes.

In 1869 Dmitri Ivanovitch Mendeleev first proposed his periodic table of the elements. He is given the major credit for proposing the conceptual framework used by chemists to systematically inter-relate the chemical properties of the elements. However, the concept of periodicity evolved in distinct stages and was the culmination of work by other chemists over several decades. For example, Newland’s Law of Octaves marked an important step in the evolution of the periodic system since it represented the first clear statement that the properties of the elements repeated after intervals of 8. Mendeleev’s predictions demonstrated in an impressive manner how the periodic table could be used to predict the occurrence and properties of new elements. Not all of his many predictions proved to be valid, but the discovery ofscandium, gallium and germanium represented sufficient vindication of its utility and they cemented its enduring influence. Mendeleev’s periodic table was based on the atomic weights of the elements and it was another 50 years before Moseley established that it was the atomic number of the elements, that was the fundamental parameter and this led to the prediction of further elements. 

Some have suggested that the periodic table is one of the most fruitful ideas in modern science and that it is comparable to Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, proposed at approximately the same time. There is no doubt that the periodic table occupies a central position in chemistry. In its modern form it is reproduced in most undergraduate inorganic textbooks and is present in almost every chemistry lecture room and classroom. 

This second volume provides chemists with an overview of the important role played by the Periodic Table in advancing our knowledge of solidstate and bioinorganic chemistry.  It also illustrates how it has been used to fine-tune the properties of compounds which have found commercial applications in catalysis, electronics, ceramics and in medicinal chemistry.  

As 2019 has been declared the International Year of the Periodic Table, it is appropriate that Structure and Bonding marks this anniversary with two special volumes.

In 1869 Dmitri Ivanovitch Mendeleev first proposed his periodic table of the elements. He is given the major credit for proposing the conceptual framework used by chemists to systematically inter-relate the chemical properties of the elements. However, the concept of periodicity evolved in distinct stages and was the culmination of work by other chemists over several decades. For example, Newland’s Law of Octaves marked an important step in the evolution of the periodic system since it represented the first clear statement that the properties of the elements repeated after intervals of 8. Mendeleev’s predictions demonstrated in an impressive manner how the periodic table could be used to predict the occurrence and properties of new elements. Not all of his many predictions proved to be valid, but the discovery ofscandium, gallium and germanium represented sufficient vindication of its utility and they cemented its enduring influence. Mendeleev’s periodic table was based on the atomic weights of the elements and it was another 50 years before Moseley established that it was the atomic number of the elements, that was the fundamental parameter and this led to the prediction of further elements. 

Some have suggested that the periodic table is one of the most fruitful ideas in modern science and that it is comparable to Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, proposed at approximately the same time. There is no doubt that the periodic table occupies a central position in chemistry. In its modern form it is reproduced in most undergraduate inorganic textbooks and is present in almost every chemistry lecture room and classroom. 

This first volume provides chemists with an account of the historical development of the Periodic Table  and  an overview of how the Periodic Table has evolved over the last 150 years. It also illustrates how it has guided the research programmes of some distinguished chemists.

This volume summarises recent developments and possible future directions for small molecule X-ray crystallography. It reviews specific areas of crystallography which are rapidly developing and places them in a historical context. The interdisciplinary nature of the technique is emphasised throughout. It introduces and describes the chemical crystallographic and synchrotron facilities which have been at the cutting edge of the subject in recent decades. The introduction of new computer-based algorithms has proved to be very influential and stimulated and accelerated the growth of new areas of science. The challenges which will arise from the acquisition of ever larger databases are considered and the potential impact of artificial intelligence techniques stressed. Recent advances in the refinement and analysis of X-ray crystal structures are highlighted.

The volume will be of interest to chemists and crystallographers with an interest in the synthesis, characterisation and physical and catalytic properties of solid-state materials. Postgraduate students entering the field will benefit from a historical introduction to the subject and a description of those techniques which are currently used. Since X-ray crystallography is used so widely in modern chemistry it will serve to alert senior chemists to those developments which will become routine in coming decades. It will also be of interest to the broad community of computational chemists who study chemical systems.

This volume summarises recent developments and highlights new techniques which will define possible future directions for small molecule X-ray crystallography. It provides an insight into how specific aspects of crystallography are developing and shows how they may interact or integrate with other areas of science.

The development of more sophisticated equipment and the massive rise in computing power has made it possible to solve the three-dimensional structure of an organic molecule within hours if not minutes. This successful trajectory has resulted in the ability to study ever more complex molecules and use smaller and smaller crystals. The structural parameters for over a million organic and organometallic compounds are now archived in the most commonly used database and this wealth of information creates a new set of problems for future generations of scientists. The volume provides some insight into how users of crystallographic structural data banks can navigatetheir way through a world where “big data” has become the norm. The coupling of crystallography to quantum chemical calculations provides detailed information about electron distributions in crystals affording a much more detailed analysis of bonding than has been possible previously.  In quantum crystallography, quantum mechanical wavefunctions are used to extract information about bonding and properties from the measured X-ray structure factors. The advent of quantum crystallography has resulted in form and structure factors derived from quantum mechanics which have been used in advanced refinement and wavefunction fitting. This volume describes how quantum mechanically derived atomic form factors and structure factors are constructed to allow the improved description of the diffraction experiment. It further discusses recent developments in this field and illustrates their applications with a wide range of examples.

This volume will be of interest to chemists and crystallographers with an interest in the synthesis, characterisation and physical and catalytic properties of solid-state materials. It will also be relevant for the community of computational chemists who study chemical systems. Postgraduate students entering the field will benefit from a historical introduction to the way in which scientists have used the data derived from crystallography to develop new structural and bonding models.

The 50 Year Anniversary of the development of electron counting paradigms for polyhedral molecules is celebrated in two volumes of Structure and Bonding.  Volume 1 covers the historical development, theoretical models and applications to boranes and metalloboranes.

The 50 Year Anniversary of the development of electron counting paradigms is celebrated in two volumes of Structure and Bonding. Volume 2 covers applications to metal and metalloid clusters of the transition and post-transition elements