Mat. Res . Bu l l . , Vol. 21, pp . 1541-1542, 1986. Pr in ted in the USA. 0025-5408/86 $3.00 + .00 Copyr igh t (c) 1986 Pergamon Journa l s Ltd .

BOOK REVIEW

Structural Chemistry of S i l i ca tes by Fr iedr ich Liebau. Springer-Verlag New York Inc. , New York (1985), 347 pp. Price: $57.00 ISBN 0-387-13747-5

"This book deals with inorganic compounds of s i l i con in which a l l s i l i con atoms are coordinated by oxygen atoms." As such i t not only includes the s i l i - cate minerals but also a l l the synthet ic s i l i ca tes developed in extensive re- search in th is important group of compounds. The goal of the author is to ex- amine the deta i ls of the crystal chemistry of these compounds and to c lass i fy a l l the known structure types into a single coherent scheme. This goal has been accomplished admirably.

The introductory chapter reviews the role of s i l i con in the Earth and the Solar System. A large number of s i l i ca tes have been iden t i f i ed in ex t ra te r - r es t r i a l mater ials. Chapter 2 discusses the various methods which have been used to depict the crystal s t ructures. This discussion is very per t inent to the material that fo l lows, because of the extensive use of st ructure i l l u s t r a - t ions throughout the tex t . Because most s i l i ca tes are te t rahedra l ly coordin- ated, the polyhedral representation was selected for most f igures. Chapter 9 covers the physics and chemistry of the Si-O bond, and the ef fects of the rest of the structure on bond lengths and angles. An attempt is made to in te rpre t the many corre la t ion diagrams presented in terms of the degree of i on i c i t y and covalency of the Si-O bond, and references to these corre lat ions is found throughout the rest of the text .

Chapter 4 describes the crystal chemical c lass i f i ca t i on which is being proposed and which is used in the l a te r discussions. This c lass i f i ca t ion is an extension of previous c lass i f i ca t ions which are based on topology of the s i l i c a t e units and t he i r connect iv i ty . I t improves on the concepts by consid- er ing addit ional parameters such as branching of the fundamental units recog- nized in the older c lass i f i ca t ions . This extension actual ly bridges the gap between the d i f f e ren t levels of dimensional i ty, i . e . , the zero-, one-, two-, or three-dimensional i ty , used previously. The resul t is the coherence of the c lass i f i ca t i on into a un i f i ca t ion of a l l the structure types.

The rest of the tex t examines the universe of the s i l i c a t e structure types. The completeness of the coverage is remarkable, and the bibl iography is probably the most extensive l i s t of publ icat ions on s i l i ca tes avai lable. One can only be amazed at the var ie ty of structures assumed by these compounds. The i l l u s t r a t i o n s are well conceived and very c lear , even to the layman in th is

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complex f ie ld . The final chapter is devoted to a discussion of the effects of the non-tetrahedral cations on the structures of the si l icate anions.

Professor Liebau is to be commended on a well-presented discussion of a very complex subject. The book wi l l make an excellent text in any course in- volving si l icate compounds; this reviewer used i t in his course on si l icate crystal chemistry with excellent results. The completeness of the coverage, however, makes this book invaluable to any crystallographer or materials sci- entist.

Dean Smith The Pennsylvania State University University Park, Pennsylvania