Inorganic Chemistry (4th Edition)

Book Preface

Like previous editions of this popular, internationally recognized text, the fourth edition of Inorganic Chemistry provides a sound foundation for undergraduate and graduate students in physical inorganic principles, descriptive inorganic chemistry, bioinorganic chemistry and applications, including catalysis, industrial processes and inorganic materials. Maintaining students’ attention during discussions of the descriptive chemistry of the elements requires effort on the part of the lecturer. Towards this end, Inorganic Chemistry makes extensive use of highly illustrated boxed material to emphasize the roles of inorganic elements and compounds in our everyday lives and in biology, medicine, the environment and industry. The inclusion of up to date literature references allows readers to readily explore the topics further. The eye-catching topic boxes achieve their aim of bringing inorganic chemistry alive. Just as important is boosting the intellectual confidence of students. Inorganic Chemistry achieves this through large numbers of worked examples, self-study exercises and end-of-chapter problems. The latter are organized in three sections: problems that focus on specific aspects of a given chapter, overview problems and a set of problems (‘inorganic chemistry matters’) that link inorganic chemistry to applications and topical research issues. These last problem sets are new to the fourth edition and aim to test students’ knowledge in a manner that links the theme of a chapter to the real world.

A major change from previous editions of Inorganic Chemistry is the removal of the detailed discussion of nuclear chemistry. This decision was not made lightly, but came after consideration of comments from the review panel set up by the publisher and from discussions with a number of colleagues. A proportion of the material still appears in the text. For example, an introduction to decay chains is now described with the actinoid metals in Chapter 27.

Chapter 4 is new to the fourth edition and pulls together the experimental techniques that previously were scattered through the book in themed boxes. The inclusion of a large number of worked examples, self-study exercises and end-of chapter problems in this chapter benefits students and teachers alike, and also ensures that the text can support inorganic practical classes in addition to lecture courses. The techniques covered in Chapter 4 include vibrational, electronic, NMR, EPR, Mo¨ssbauer and photoelectron spectroscopies and mass spectrometry in addition to purification methods, elemental analysis, thermogravimetric analysis diffraction methods and computational methods. The practical issues of IR spectroscopy detailed in Chapter 4 complement the group theory approach in Chapter 3.

I am mindful of the ever-changing nomenclature guidelines of the IUPAC. Changes were made on going from the second to the third edition as a result of the 2005 recommendations, and this new edition of Inorganic Chemistry incorporates further revisions (e.g. oxido and chlorido in place of oxo and chloro ligands).

Three-dimensional molecular structures in Inorganic Chemistry have been drawn using atomic coordinates accessed from the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Base and implemented through the ETH in Zu¨rich, or from the Protein Data Bank (http://www/rcsb.org/pdb).

Accompanying this text is a Solutions Manual written by Catherine E. Housecroft, and there is an accompanying Website with multiple choice questions and rotatable structures based on the graphics in the hard-copy text. The site can be accessed from www.pearsoned.co.uk/housecroft.

It is always a pleasure to receive emails from those who read and use Inorganic Chemistry. It is their feedback that helps to shape the next edition. On going from the third to fourth editions, I would particularly like to acknowledge the following colleagues for their suggestions: Professor Enzo Alessio, Professor Gareth Eaton, Dr Evan Bieske, Dr Mark Foreman and Dr Jenny Burnham. I am very grateful for the time that my colleagues have spent reading and commenting upon specific sections of text: Dr Henk Bolink (solidstate devices), Dr Cornelia Palivan (EPR spectroscopy), Dr Markus Neuburger (diffraction methods), Professor Helmut Sigel (equilibria and stability constants) and Professor Jan Reedijk (IUPAC nomenclature). The publishing team at Pearson ensure that I keep to schedule and for the fourth edition, particular thanks go to Kevin Ancient, Wendy Baskett, Sarah Beanland, Melanie Beard, Patrick Bond, Rufus Curnow, Mary Lince, Darren Prentice and Ros Woodward.

Working on the fourth edition has been a very different experience for me compared to the previous editions of the book. Dr Alan Sharpe passed away a few months after the publication of the third edition. Although in his eighties when we worked on the last edition, Alan’s enthusiasm for inorganic chemistry remained undiminished. He was not one for computers, and his contributions and corrections came to me in longhand by regular mail from the UK to Switzerland. I have missed his thought provoking letters and comments, and I dedicate the new edition of the book to his memory.

No writing project is complete without input from my husband, Edwin Constable. His critical evaluation of text and problems is never ending, but always invaluable. The writing team in our home is completed by Rocco and Rya whose boundless energy and feline mischief seem to outweigh their eagerness to learn any chemistry … perhaps with time.

Catherine E. Housecroft