This fourth volume of the series "Progress in Physical Chemistry" is a collection of mini-review articles written by those who were project leaders and members of the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 458 of the German Research Foundation (DFG). The articles are based on ten years of intense coordinated research and report particularly on the scientific progress made at SFB 458 since 2005. Their common theme is the study of ionic motion in disordered materials over wide scales in space and time. The mini reviews thus address key questions in the rapidly developing field of SOLID STATE IONICS, a discipline which has its roots in the physics and chemistry of solids and is now a thriving branch of materials science and engineering. In the materials studied, the dynamics of the mobile ions are de-termined by disorder and interaction. This complicated many-particle problem constitutes an area of basic research in its own right. At SFB 458, it has been tackled on complementary routes, i.e., by synthesis of new disordered electrolytes, by advanced experimental techniques and by numerical simulations and model concepts. Substantial progress has thus been made in developing a coherent view and a new understanding of the ionic motion in materials with disordered structures.

This comprehensive series of volumes on inorganic chemistry provides inorganic chemists with a forum for critical, authoritative evaluations of advances in every area of the discipline. Every volume reports recent progress with a significant, up-to-date selection of papers by internationally recognized researchers, complemented by detailed discussions and complete documentation. Each volume features a complete subject index and the series includes a cumulative index as well.

Progress in Physical Chemistry is a collection of recent »Review Articles« published in the »Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie«. The third volume of the series "Progress in Physical Chemistry" comprises 27 articles, most of them with review character, written by the members of the Priority Program (SPP) 1145 of the German Research Foundation (DFG).

The Advances in Chemical Physics series provides the chemical physics and physical chemistry fields with a forum for critical, authoritative evaluations of advances in every area of the discipline. Filled with cutting-edge research reported in a cohesive manner not found elsewhere in the literature, each volume of the Advances in Chemical Physics series serves as the perfect supplement to any advanced graduate class devoted to the study of chemical physics.

Progress in Physical Organic Chemistry is dedicated to reviewing the latest investigations into organic chemistry that use quantitative and mathematical methods. These reviews help readers understand the importance of individual discoveries and what they mean to the field as a whole. Moreover, the authors, leading experts in their fields, offer unique and thought-provoking perspectives on the current state of the science and its future directions. With so many new findings published in a broad range of journals, Progress in Physical Organic Chemistry fills the need for a central resource that presents, analyzes, and contextualizes the major advances in the field. The articles published in Progress in Physical Organic Chemistry are not only of interest to scientists working in physical organic chemistry, but also scientists working in the many subdisciplines of chemistry in which physical organic chemistry approaches are now applied, such as biochemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, and materials and polymer science. Among the topics explored in this series are reaction mechanisms; reactive intermediates; combinatorial strategies; novel structures; spectroscopy; chemistry at interfaces; stereochemistry; conformational analysis; quantum chemical studies; structure-reactivity relationships; solvent, isotope and solid-state effects; long-lived charged, sextet or open-shell species; magnetic, non-linear optical and conducting molecules; and molecular recognition.