Partially disordered inorganic materials

The presence of defects in crystals and other solid materials can have a profound effect upon their chemical and physical properties and, consequently, that defects have a major impact on the practical utility of many technological materials. One approach to the definition of partial disorder is to consider disorder in terms of the length scale and dimensionality of any disorder that may be present. Several of these areas with respect to the role of disorder, organizing them according to their degree of long-range order are discussed. These are giant magnetoresistance in rare-earth manganates, aluminosilicate zeolites, insertion and inclusion compounds, porous mesostructures, biomaterials and carbon molecular sieves.