Mineralomimetic chemistry as a modern aspect of co-ordination chemistry

By denoting as mineralomimetic chemistry the chemistry of the build-up of mineral-like structures using materials that never give stable minerals in nature, the multidimensional structures comprised of the linkage of co-ordination polyhedra such as those observed for natural minerals are demonstrated for the products obtained by the crystal engineering strategy based on the structural similarity between Cd(CN)(2) and SiO2, and between Cd(CN)(2) and SiO2. The structures of high-cristobalite,low-cristobalite, high-tridymite, stishovite, pyrosilicate chain silicates, ring silicates, layer silicates, framework silicates, etc. have been mimicked by polymeric complexes of cadmium cyanide and polycyanopolycadmate(II); [H-3(H2O)(14)][Cd{Cu-2(CN)(7)}] has a doubly interpenetrating structure of the pyrite-mimetic [Cd{Cu-2(CN)(7)}] framework and the framework of the hydrogen-bonded water molecules has a topology approximated to that of rutile; a two-dimensional ice structure (comparable with the two-dimensional array of the water molecules in ice Ih)is built from aqua ligands and the intercalated waters in [Cd(H2O)(2)Ni(CN)(4)]. 4H(2)O. As a modern aspect of co-ordination chemistry, the concept of mineralomimetic chemistry is extended more generally for the multidimensional structures built from the linkage of co-ordination polyhedra.