From the viewpoint of structural chemistry, structure and bonding lie at the heart of rational syntheses that have already contributed to many signi?cant scienti?c advances in inorganic chemistry and material chemistry, and especially to the discovery of some functional materials. Naturally the ?rst step to novel functional material is synthesis, and in many cases exploratory synthesis seems to be the onlyworkableroutetonewcompound.However, rationalsynthesiswillsurelymake property-oriented exploration more fruitful and pleasing. Successundertheguidanceofelectronicstructuralfeatures,...

From the viewpoint of structural chemistry, structure and bonding lie at the heart of rational syntheses that have already contributed to many signi?cant scienti?c advances in inorganic chemistry and material chemistry, and especially to the discovery of some functional materials. Naturally the ?rst step to novel functional material is synthesis, and in many cases exploratory synthesis seems to be the onlyworkableroutetonewcompound.However, rationalsynthesiswillsurelymake property-oriented exploration more fruitful and pleasing. Successundertheguidanceofelectronicstructuralfeatures,...