A very general review of the subject was presented. It was noted that, in general, the properties of crystals depended upon individual grains, their boundaries (including both the external free surfaces and the internal interfaces), and other defects; such as zero-dimensional vacant atomic sites or impurity atoms and 1-dimensional dislocations. It was pointed out that grain boundaries had been known about for longer than had the periodic atomic arrangement of crystalline materials, and yet there seemed to exist no single textbook which covered all aspects of grain boundary physics and chemistry.

V.Paidar: Key Engineering Materials, 1995, 103, 79-112