Sur les phases de type clathrate du silicium et des éléments apparentés (C, Ge, Sn) : Une approche historique

This review article relates the history and the recent development of clathrate-type compounds of silicon and related elements (carbon, germanium, tin). Their cage-like structures are identical to those of the gas and liquid hydrates, as well as the silica-based clathrasils . Long time considered as simple crystallographic curiosities, their interest was drastically increased after the discovery of the fullerene forms of carbon. From that time they have been intensively studied for their interesting properties in so various topics as superconducting materials, wide gap semiconductors, super-hard and thermoelectric materials