New compounds and structures in the solid state

Abstract

The development of new synthetic routes and instrumentation for characterisation have resulted in a number of outstanding publications in 2005. The increasing use of elevated pressure, combined with in situ diffraction techniques, has resulted in the identification of a new phase of elemental curium, the characterisation of a new polytype of silica, synthesis of a new superconductor GaTa₄Se₈, the first reports of the multiferroic compounds Bi₂Ni_1−xMn_xO₆ and a crystalline, mesoporous germanium oxide with the lowest framework density yet reported for an inorganic material. This review will provide an overview of these, and other publications, which have reported significant developments in the chemistry of extended, crystalline inorganic materials in 2005.