Inorganic crystal engineering: a personal perspective

Inorganic crystal engineering is the modelling, synthesis and evaluation of the properties of crystalline materials obtained from inorganic, organometallic and bioinorganic building blocks. This article will take the reader across this interdisciplinary field of research from supramolecular to materials chemistry and biominerals following the collection of papers presented at the Dalton Discussion on Inorganic Crystal Engineering held at the University of Bologna. The focus will not only be on the preparation and characterisation of supermolecules, co-ordination networks, molecular crystals, nanoporous materials and zeolites but also on the investigation of magnetism and conductivity, of Langmuir-Blodgett films, and of nanoporous, amorphous, polymorphic and pseudo-polymorphic systems. Both directions of foreseen development of the inorganic crystal engineering field as well as some of the major drawbacks will be critically discussed.