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
