Book Review (1): Perovskites Modern and Ancient
This book covers the great structural variation of the perovskites and related phases. It is set out in ten chapters dealing with the different structural types of perovskites: "true" perovskites, ordered perovskites, non-stoichiometric perovskites, such as the bronzes and bronzoids and the hexagonal perovskites. Later chapters cover layered perovskites, including Ruddleston-Popper compounds, high Tc superconducting cuprates, and the hydrogen-bonded organic-inorganic halide structures. The great variety is increased as within many of these "structural types" it is possible to find polar transitions in which the central ions in octahedral coordination are driven off-centre, to pure tilting transitions of the framework of octahedra. The final chapter of the book betrays the origin of the author in the earth sciences, and covers the variety of natural perovskites, their compositional ranges, and their importance in the mantle and in meteorites.
Mitchell has deliberately and sensibly avoided covering topics such as superconductivity and magnetism associated with the phases, which would require several volumes of their own to cover in the same detail. What he has produced is an almost encyclopaedic structural work, which should be of great benefit to many solid-state chemists and physicists, materials scientists and mineralogists.
The book is timely in that in the last several years there has been considerable progress in both the group theory underlying, e.g., the potential tilt systems, limiting the number of possible space groups for tilting transitions, as well as progress in the crystal chemical predictability as to which distortion will occur, for certain cases.
The quality of production in this book is excellent: there are over 300 pages of high quality, glossy paper. The book is illustrated with over 250 figures, all reproduced in colour, covering representations of structures, cation ordering, diffraction patterns, phase diagrams etc, and 36 tables of space groups, possible tilt systems and compositions of natural perovskites.
Two things, in my opinion, make this book very valuable: the first is the very large and highly up-to-date reference list provided. This makes the book a truly useful reference and enables the reader to rapidly examine the literature in any corner of the perovskite world. The second is the context that is provided by such a work. In spite of modern databases and internet searches, where one is capable of finding a great deal of information for free, it is only a book such as this in which one can find a global overview of a topic. There is no way one could get such a broad swathe of information in context anywhere near as rapidly even from the most modern databases.
The great scope of this book makes it a highly valuable reference resource for people who deal regularly with, or have an interest in the perovskites. If you think that you have even a slight interest in buying such a book, you probably should purchase a copy of this one.
Ian Swainson,
NRC, Ottawa.