Submitted by Adam Johnson / Harvey Mudd College on Mon, 01/12/2009 - 15:35
My Notes
Description

House (Inorganic chemistry):  The book is divided into 5 parts:  first, an introductory section on atomic structure, symmetry, and bonding; second, ionic bonding and solids; third, acids, bases and nonaqueous solvents; fourth, descriptive chemistry; and fifth, coordination chemistry.  The first three sections are short, 2-4 chapters each, while the descriptive section (five chapters) and coordination chemistry section (seven chapters covering ligand field theory, spectroscopy, synthesis and reaction chemistry, organometallics, and bioinorganic chemistry.) are longer.  Each chapter includes references (both texts and primary literature) for further reading, and a few problems (answers not available in the back of the book). 

I thought the text was generally good.  This text felt aimed at the introductory one-semester inorganic course offered at most schools rather than an advanced (senior/grad) course.  Although MO theory is developed in the text, most of the coordination chemistry is described using crystal field theory, though a short section on MO theory for complexes is included.  The sections on descriptive chemistry of the elements are very good and not overloaded with too much information, and the writing style (throughout the text) is easy to read and conversational.

My main complaint about the book, and this may seem petty, is that the molecular orbitals (throughout) do not accurately depict the way actual orbitals look;  they are too "pointy." 

The list price for the student text is $99.95 for a paperback, 864p version.

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