Half-century history of clathrate chemistry

This paper is devoted to the history of a new field of knowledge — clathrate chemistry, whose 50th anniversary is being celebrated. The Historical Dates section contains data on clathrates from the first observations of these compounds (late 18th century) to the pioneering works (1947–1948) of the English crystallographer Herbert Marcus Powell explaining their nature. Major trends of research into clathrate chemistry since Powell’s works are discussed. Translated fromZhurnal Strukturnoi Khimii, Vol. 40, No. 5, pp. 797–808, September–October, 1999