Incommensurate suprastructures: New problems of inorganic solid-state chemistry

Data on a new class of inorganic incommensurate intergrowth suprastructures, viz., layered misfit compounds, are surveyed and systematised. Physical properties of misfit suprastructures are discussed. Possible mechanisms of the effects of the electronic structure and incommensurability on the structural elements of suprastructures and on their recognition in molecular ensembles are considered. The general criteria for self-organisation of incommensurate suprastructures are proposed and conditions for the fragmentation of one of the sublattices (i.e., conditions for the formation of nanocomposites) are given. The bibliography includes 82 references.