An important example of a preparative technique, and indeed a
whole new chemical milieu in which there has been a resurgence of
interest is hydrothermal synthesis. This review will attempt to
describe and discuss several aspects of preparative hydrothermal chemistry
as they relate to the formation of single crystals. A complete
review of hydrothermal research will not be attempted, since certain
aspects of the field are already well-reviewed in the literature. A
recent review by Roy (1) emphasizes geochemical aspects of hydrothermal
phase equilibrium studies, a recent review by Ellis and Fyfe
(2) discusses the physical chemical properties of hydrothermal systems,
and a review by the author and Nielsen (3) describes experimental
hydrothermal techniques. None of these aspects will be
emphasized in this paper.