Vol. 25 No. 3
May - June 2003

Solid State Chemistry

by Pavol Sajgalík and Milan Drábik

AHPCS "average" structure, as derived from NMR and GPC studies, from the plenary lecture of Prof. L. Interrante.

The IUPAC-sponsored International Conference on Solid State Chemistry, held 7—12 July 2002 in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, was the fifth conference in the series since 1986. The original idea of the first conference organizers was to bring together solidstate chemists from Western and Eastern Europe in order to promote cooperation between the two-at that time-divided groups. At the first Solid State Chemistry Conference, held in Karlove Vary, Czech Republic, a kind of nucleus formed that has grown over the years and resulted in well-established meetings organized biannually, either in the Czech or Slovak Republics.

Solid State Chemistry 2002 (SSC02) was organized in the following six sections:

• advanced synthesis and characterization techniques of materials
• structure and electron structure of solids
• chemistry of glasses
• novel inorganic materials
• layered compounds, clathrates, and intercalates
• deposited films and surface chemistry

These sections covered almost all modern branches of solid-state chemistry, which attracted the interest of scientists and almost as many producers of new materials and technologies. One hundred sixty-eight participants from 26 countries and 4 continents listened to 11 plenary, 12 keynote, and 83 lectures. During the conference 117 posters were also presented. The International Referee Board accepted a total of 103 papers and these were published in Solid State Chemistry V, volumes 90 and 91, of the series Solid State Phenomena (available from Scitec, <www.ttp.net>).

Prof. Leonard Interrante, representing IUPAC, presented an overview of IUPAC activities and delivered the plenary lecture on Si-Based Ceramics from Polymer Precursors. Other plenary lectures covered each topic of the conference, providing an excellent foundation for the discussions and certainly serving as hints for further developments in the field. Readers can gain an understanding of the conference, its aims, and contents from short descriptions of the plenary lectures and papers that are listed below. The papers were published in Pure and Applied Chemistry, Vol. 74, No. 11, pp. 2083—2168, 2002.

H. Altenburg et al., Thick Films of Ceramic Superconducting, Electro-Ceramic Materials. Thick films are made by low-priced processes such as doctor blading, screen-printing, or spraying methods, etc. These technologies and the fabricated thick films of thermoresistive and superconducting materials are discussed.

L. Benco et al., Catalytic Conversion of Hydrocarbons in Zeolites from First Principles. The conversion of hydrocarbons over zeolites is an important industrial process. In order to examine reaction pathways, both static and molecular dynamics density functional theory calculations have been performed.

S. Hoste et al., Nonvacuum-Based Deposition Techniques for Superconducting Ceramic Coatings. The development of the new generation of deposition methods, which are based on deposition under atmospheric environment and from aqueous precursor materials, is a real challenge for the community of solid-state chemists and delineates the subject of this overview.

L. Interrante et al., Si-Based Ceramics from Polymer Precursors. The paper is focused on the SiC precursor –AHPCS, which has also been used recently, along with other polymeric precursors, to make two-phase (SiC/C and SiC/BN) amorphous ceramics exhibiting unusual microstructures and thermal/mechanical properties; SiC/C composites exert high oxidation resistance, and microindentation tests on the SiC/BN system suggest unusual toughness.

L. Nemec, Engineering and Chemistry of the Glass Melting Process. Improved glass-melting technology, process control, glass quality control, and establishing novel melting conditions are realized by different kinds of physicochemical models, these are represented by systems containing melt and numerous inhomogeneities (solid particles, bubbles).

A. Ray, Hydrothermally Treated Cement-Based Building Materials: Past, Present, and Future. The paper illustrates the strength of thermal methods, especially when combined with other analytical techniques, in the understanding of hydrothermal reactions.

P. Sajgalík, Importance of Chemistry in High-Tech Ceramics Design. This paper deals with the role of chemistry in the design of high-tech ceramic materials; grain boundary composition of polycrystalline ceramics dictates the hardness fracture toughness and creep resistance of liquid-phase sintered silicon nitride and silicon carbide materials.

J. W. Stucki et al., Effects of Iron Oxidation States on the Surface and Structural Properties of Smectites. The oxidation state of iron in the crystal structure of smectite clay minerals profoundly alters their physical- chemical properties. Recent studies clearly reveal that the surface chemistry of the clay is also affected, which alters clay-water and clay-organic interaction mechanisms.

F. Varret F et al., Examples of Molecular Switching in Inorganic Solids, Due to Temperature, Light, Pressure, and Magnetic Field. Authors describe various molecular switching processes occurring in several types of inorganic solids: spin cross-over compounds, photomagnetic Prussian blue analogs, and valence-tautomeric system. A common description of their static properties by a two-level model is given.

The International Conference on Solid State Chemistry 2004 will be held in Prague, Czech Republic, during the summer of 2004.

For more information, contact <[email protected]> or <[email protected]>.

Pavol Sajgalík, chairman of SSC 2002, is director of the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Slovak Academy of Sciences. Milan Drábik, vice-chairman of the conference, is a professor at the same institution.