reviews lnorganic Chemistry: Principles of Structure and Reactivity, 4th ed.
James E. Huheey, Ellen A. Keiter, and Richard 1. Keiter. Harper Collins: New York, 1993. Figs. and tables. xvii + 1052 pp. 20.0 cm. x 25.3 cm $72.00. The first edition of this papular text appeared in 1972 and was followed hy second (1978) and third editions (1983). In this accurate, rewritten, and up-to-date (references as late as 1992) edition Jim Huheey, who admits that "It is becoming increasingly impossible for one person to monitor all areas of inorganic chemistry," is joined by a husband-wife team of a later generation, who %ring to the baok their interests in coordination chemistry, organo&tallics, and physical methods, a s well as fresh viewpoints on a number of other topics." The result is a n eminently teachable text. interestine to student and instmetor alike. that admirablv rueeeeds m b n n ~ p n g-to the readrr the rssentials of ~norgan~c chemistry in a n easily rradnblr format wlth emphasis on the tact that inorganic rhrmmtry is an exulting field of rescarch rather than a closed body of knowledge." In contrast to more traditional.,"encvclaoedic"texts such as Cotton and Wilkinson's Advanced Inoreanic dhemistrv or Greenwood and Karnshnw'r Chonz,slry of /he Elrm,nls, which present the drrenptiva rhemi9try uf the elrments according to periodic table groups, the book under review is a balanced blend of fact and thrmy,organized on a topical basis. However, considerable descriptive chemistry is integrated into the chapters, many of which are essentially independent and may he included or omitted, depending an the instructor's desires or the time available. Such chapters consider atomic structure, symmetry and group theory (expanded coverage, including spectroscopy and crystallography); ionic and covalent bonds (reorganized chapters); structure and reactivity; solid state (in-deoth coveraee): . .. chemical forces: acid-hase ehemistrv: aaueaus and nonaauwus solvents: coordination chemistrv rthrrr scpnratr chapters on bondmg, spectra, and magnetism, s t r u c t u r e ; and reactions, kinetics, and mechanisms,; organumetallica and caralys~srthoroughly reworked discu*km$t; chains, rings, cages, and clusters; and the inorganic chemistry of biological systems. ' h o "descriptive" chapters discuss selected chemistry of the metals (nontransition, transition, lanthanide, actinide, and transactinides) in various oxidation states (elucidated by Latimer diagrams of redox potentials) and the halogens and noble eases. As in orevious editions, the detailed treatment of periodicitfis postponed until the penul&mate chapter (18) in the belief that this tooie is best aooreciated onlv &r the student has acquired "sufficient perspective to appreciate the 'fme structure' of the periodic table." Although the field of inorganic chemistry has expanded tremendously in the 2 1 years since the f r s t edition, only a n additional 315 pages (1052 versus 737 pp.) have been required to aceomm* date newer developments because of a careful selection of topics and judicious rewriting and condensation. New topics include huckminsterfullerenes (buckyballs) and their metal derivatives; high temperature superconductors; the "ozone hole"; planar, macrocyclic ligands such as crown ethers and ayptates; the "hedgehog" dication, I I ( C ~ H , ) ~ P A ~ I ~ excited C I ~ + ;state outer sphere ~ l ~similar + cations; electron transfer reactions of [ R ~ ( b i ~ y )and
-
~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~
~
~
.
3 .
~7~~~~~
~~
~
~
~
-.
~
and a photodehydrogenation catalyst ("platinum pop"). Furthermore, the hook is replete with more than 500 illustrations, diagrams, stereoviews, and tables (Escher woodcuts are included in the chapter on symmetry), many of them new and from the original literature, as well as hundreds of equations, reaction schemes, and references (many to this Journal 1. Unusual and useful tables such as those comparing different physical techniques for structural studies (pp 238-239) and pyometallurgy and hydrometallurgy (p 384) abound. The b w k encompasses history and general culture, makes frequent use of quotations and poetry, and is a goldmine of fascinatine. -. sometimes amusing. facts not available elsewhere such as pnmuncistmn vagarrrs ip 475 and the hond migration knnun as "The Blwmin~mnShuflle" \p 8 1 3 . S m e appendws ( 7 7 pp present valuahle data such as unita and conversion factors, bond L.nergies a n d band lengths, s t a n d a r d reduction potentials, Tanabe-Sugano diagrams, directions for preparing paper stereochemical models, and the secrets of stermpsis. The 32-page appendix on nomenclature is a comprehensive summary of all the main sections of the last (1990) IUPAC "Red Book." An ll-page (three columns per page) index makes the volume "user-friendly." ~
0.
A shortcoming of previous editions mentioned by some reviewers has been the selection and number of problems. This new upto-date edition contains 634 end-of-chapter pmhlems (62 for the organometallics chapter alone), many of them new, and some containine several oarts or reouirine use of the lihrarv. A solutions manual provides answers tu prublems. It rs indeed a pleasure to r ~ o m m c n dwarmly this thoroughly r r v i s d and updatrd edition ofa timetested favorrtr among lnstruetorsof one. or two-srmrstrr undergraduate and graduate inorganic chemistry courses.
-
.
-
G e o r g e B. Kauffman California ~tateiJniversit~, Fresno Fresno, CA 93740
~.
..
~
Monographs C h a r g e Transfer Photochemistry o f Coordination
Compounds
Off6Horvath and Kenneth L. Stevenson. VCH: New York. NY 1993. xviii + 380 pp. Figs. and tables. 16.2 x 24.2 cm. This hook offers a detailed summary of the results of studies on charge transfer photochemistry of metal complexes over the past decade. Coverage addresses photoinduced processes in which the primary step is a charge transfer reaction of the excited metal complex, and provides in-depth descriptions of the photochemistry of the complexes themselves. For easy reference, each chapter examines the photoredox properties of complexes of a series of metals belonging to the same column of the periodic table, including hoth transition metals and main p u p metals (for those that show photoactivity).
Reviewed in This Issue Reviewer
James E. Huheey,
Ellen A. Keiter, and Richard L. Keiter, Inorganic Chemistry Principles of Structure and Reactivity, 4th ed.
George 8. Kauffman
Volume 70
A279
Number 10 October 1993
A279
