Polyhedron Vol. 6, No. 2, p. 347, 1977 Pergamon Journals Ltd. Printed in Great Britain

BOOK REVIEW

Structure and Bonding, VoL 62, Clusters. Springer, Berlin, 1985. ISBN 3-540-15731-X, 116

pp., DM 980

The latest volume of this popular series of reviews contains three surveys of aspects of polynuclear metal compounds. Each review is valuable and each shows a different way in which a review can help us master chemical information: by surveying a field for the first time, by updating our knowledge of a busy area pre- viously well covered, or by writing an essay which is itself a contribution to science.

Gunther Gliemann and Hartmut Yersin from Regens- burg provide a well organized article on one-dimensional [Pt(CN),]’ - species. They emphasize electronic spectra, both absorption and emission, and include effects of pressure and magnetic fields, but they do not deal with the one-dimensional electric conductance which is already well known. General inorganic chemists may find the level of theory rather tough, but they will be pleased by the many excellent diagrams of polarized single crystal spectra.

Albert Cotton and Richard Walton have updated their book on multiply bonded cluster complexes by reviewing recent work, mostly their own, on dinuclear compounds of this type. The metals covered are Cr, MO, W, Tc, Re, Ru, OS and Pt, but not in any special order, nor at equal length. There are also short sections on spectroscopy and a note on M, molecules. I was sorry not to see anything about Nb=Nb bonds, so this is not quite a

comprehensive study. For that matter there are plenty of interesting dinuclear complexes which are not metal- metal bonded, as in MO and Cu chemistry, and we must take care not to forget these while we get excited about quadruple bonds. Despite these criticisms I enjoyed reading how the field is now developing from structural and bonding studies to include redox and ligand reac- tions. Those familiar with Dr Cotton’s work will enjoy or be bored by the usual pointed refutations of the results of other workers, especially theoreticians and Russians.

The most valuable review of the three is Gfinter Schmid’s essay about large cluster molecules. Using purely geometric arguments he explains why such a molecule as [Au,S(PPh,),#&] is found. No molecular orbitals, no electron counting, just a simple analysis of a cubic close-packed cube-octahedron of 55 metal atoms, the size of phosphines (at the 12 remaining vertices) and the spaces left for chlorines (over the six square faces). Dr Schmid goes on to show where these structures are found, how they are non-rigid, and how electron counting rules which apply to smaller clusters are weak here. There is a short note on magnetochemistry and this splendid essay concludes with some striking electron micrographs of Au,, clusters.

PETER THORNTON

Department of Chemistry Queen Mary College London El 4NS, U.K.

347