Chemical Education Today
Book & Media Reviews Inorganic Chemistry by Catherine E. Housecroft and Alan G. Sharpe Prentice Hall: New York, 2001. 832 pp. ISBN 0-582-310806. $87. reviewed by Craig Barnes
This first edition of Inorganic Chemistry by Catherine Housecroft and Alan Sharpe is the product of a new collaboration between two inorganic chemists, both of whom have longstanding reputations as outstanding teachers and researchers in this subject. Sharpe, as most will recognize, has already authored three previous editions of a similar textbook on inorganic chemistry while this is Housecroft’s first appearance as an author at the introductory textbook level. This text is not a simple rewrite of Sharpe’s earlier texts. Its overall format is well thought out, and it offers a fairly comprehensive introduction to the traditional topics of inorganic chemistry as well as to newer topics such as solid state chemistry, catalysis, and bioinorganic chemistry. This two-color text may be divided into three main sections: Chapters 1–8 (~200 pages) focus on introducing the theories that make up the core of modern inorganic chemistry. These include MO theory, symmetry, the solid state, aqueous and nonaqueous acids, bases and ionic systems, and oxidation–reduction reactions. Chapter 2 is entitled Nuclear Properties and begins with fundamental properties of nuclei (stability and radioactive decay processes) but ends with brief introductions to nuclear magnetic resonance and Mössbauer spectroscopies. Chapters 9–18 (~200 pages) are descriptive in nature covering the properties and reactivity of main group elements, including the organometallic chemistry of s- and p-block elements (Chapter 18). Chapters 19–22 (~175 pages) focus on the properties and complexes of the d-block elements. It may be of interest to some readers that the only formal electron counting system presented is that in which all ligands are considered neutral and frequently donate odd numbers of electrons to the
metal valence electron count (for example, Cl and cyclopentadiene ligands donate one and five electrons, respectively). Chapter 23 presents a brief overview of the fundamental aspects of organometallic chemistry, including coverage of ligand types, the isolobal principle, polynuclear cluster complexes, and basic reaction types. Chapter 24 contains a short description of the properties of the f-block elements. The final four chapters are more topical in nature: the kinetics of substitution and electron transfer reactions of transition metal complexes (25); homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis (26); and brief surveys of current topics inorganic materials chemistry (27) and bioinorganic chemistry (28). All the traditional elements of a text for a senior-level inorganic course will be found in this book. It is quite current in its coverage of topics in inorganic chemistry (through 1999) with references in the Suggested Further Reading sections at the end of each chapter. Illustrations depicting three-dimensional aspects of structure throughout the text are well done and clear. Many molecular illustrations are direct adaptations of structures determined by X-ray diffraction. For a course near the end of their undergraduate studies and with a text of this size, I like to tell students that it will serve as a reference source that they can use long after the course is over. For this reason, I would have liked to have seen leading references to the original literature included with topics as they were introduced in the chapters. This text will certainly function as a reference for students, but not one which is directly linked to the literature. There is certainly more material in this text than can be covered in the traditional one-semester course in the junior or senior year, so instructors will have to pick and choose among the topics and depth of coverage offered. Short answers to most of the problems at the end of each chapter are provided after the appendices. A solutions manual, written by Housecroft, is available separate from the text and is not included in this review. Craig Barnes is in the Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-1600;
[email protected] JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 80 No. 7 July 2003 • Journal of Chemical Education
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