The modelling of local structural order is necessarily required to understa
nd the physical properties of disordered crystalline and amorphous systems,
and materials containing grains with nanometre dimensions. Because of its
atomic scale sensitivity, Fe-57 Mossbauer spectrometry brings relevant info
rmation related to the local order in the case of iron-containing materials
. We report here selected examples illustrating the ability of this local p
robe technique to study disordered systems, but also its limitations. (C) 2
001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.