MINERALOMIMETIC CHEMISTRY AS A MODERN ASPECT OF COORDINATION CHEMISTRY

By denoting as mineralomimetic chemistry the chemistry of the build-up of mineral-like structures using materials that never give stable min erals in nature, the multidimensional structures comprised of the link age of co-ordination polyhedra such as those observed for natural mine rals are demonstrated for the products obtained by the crystal enginee ring strategy based on the structural similarity between Cd(CN)(2) and SiO2, and between Cd(CN)(2) and SiO2. The structures of high-cristoba lite,low-cristobalite, high-tridymite, stishovite, pyrosilicate chain silicates, ring silicates, layer silicates, framework silicates, etc. have been mimicked by polymeric complexes of cadmium cyanide and polyc yanopolycadmate(II); [H-3(H2O)(14)][Cd{Cu-2(CN)(7)}] has a doubly inte rpenetrating structure of the pyrite-mimetic [Cd{Cu-2(CN)(7)}] framewo rk and the framework of the hydrogen-bonded water molecules has a topo logy approximated to that of rutile; a two-dimensional ice structure ( comparable with the two-dimensional array of the water molecules in ic e Ih)is built from aqua ligands and the intercalated waters in [Cd(H2O )(2)Ni(CN)(4)]. 4H(2)O. As a modern aspect of co-ordination chemistry, the concept of mineralomimetic chemistry is extended more generally f or the multidimensional structures built from the linkage of co-ordina tion polyhedra.