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The Application of Vibrational Spectroscopy to Clay Minerals and Layered Double Hydroxides

edited by J. Theo Kloprogge. CMS Workshop Lectures, 13, 2005, 285 pp. [ISBN 978-1-881208-14-1]. Price $26 ($21 for members of CMS and MSA).

Department of Chemistry, University of North Texas, POB 305070, Denton, TX 76203-5070, USA

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

This wide-ranging, well produced and inexpensive volume belongs on the work shelf of every research group involved in the study of clays or layered double hydroxides. The list of authors is a roll-call of the most prominent workers in the field, and, while not offering a comprehensive survey, the diverse contributions provide snapshots of the variety of techniques currently being employed in this area, and how these may be brought to bear on a wide range of problems of interest to all workers in the area, not just spectroscopists.

This reviewer has long held that the vibrational spectroscopy of layered materials is a rich source of detailed information, some of it unobtainable in any other way, and deserves a place second only to X-ray diffraction. This volume may help persuade more researchers that without at least routine collection of infrared spectra, the characterization of layered materials is seriously incomplete. And if this involves a walk over to the Chemistry Building, so much the better for all concerned.

For most clay chemists, including this reviewer, vibrational spectroscopy is a means to an end, but it is an extremely powerful means. Through the operation of selection rules, the number of distinct observable modes gives information about local symmetry. Frequency (more precisely, frequency² x effective mass) relates directly to the stiffness of a bond, and thus, indirectly, to its strength. From this, it immediately follows that in favorable cases the vibrational spectrum can give information about the number and nature of subtly different sites. Finally, in favorable cases the separation of frequencies can give information about how equivalent units within the material are interacting with each other, information that is extremely difficult to obtain in any other way. While these broad general themes are not, on the whole, spelt out explicitly, their operation . . . [Full Text of this Article]