descriptive inorganic chemistry (rayner-canham, geoff)
TRANSCRIPT
Chemical Education Today
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 75 No. 6 June 1998 • Journal of Chemical Education 697
Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry
Geoff Rayner-Canham. W. H. Freeman: New York, 1996.492 pp. ISBN: 0-7167-2819-2. $67.95.
There are plenty of good inorganic chemistry books onthe market, from venerable reference works (e.g., Cotton andWilkinson’s Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, Greenwood andEarnshaw’s Chemistry of the Elements) to “comprehensive”two-semester textbooks (e.g., Huheey, Keiter, and Keiter’sInorganic Chemistry: Principles of Structure and Reactivity,Douglas, McDaniel, and Alexander’s Concepts and Models ofInorganic Chemistry). Undergraduate students, especially thosenew to inorganic chemistry, frequently find these booksoverwhelming in depth and length (not to mention weight!).Alternatively, some shorter books with less ambitious goalspresent an oversimplified view of the field or sacrifice concep-tual material on behalf of sections on environmental, industrial,or biological chemistry. Rayner-Canham’s Descriptive Inor-ganic Chemistry, a one-semester book aimed specifically at theintroductory (sophomore) level, provides an excellent balanceof theory and descriptive material, with a fresh look at tradi-tional and current areas of interest in inorganic chemistry.
The first nine chapters (of a total of 21) conciselypresent the fundamental concepts in inorganic chemistrywith unusually clear text, examples, and illustrations. Includedare chapters on covalent, metallic, and ionic bonding, thermo-dynamics, acids and bases, and redox reactions. The rest ofthe book deals separately with each group or block of the
periodic table. Interesting historic notes and anecdotes andimportant biological aspects of the elements discussed are in-cluded in each of these chapters. Most entertaining, a numberof current topics in inorganic chemistry, from “bond-stretchisomers” and platinum anticancer drugs to the chemistry ofbook preservation, are included in a few “boxed” paragraphsthroughout the book. Each chapter concludes with a numberof exercises, typically between 20 and 30, for which theinclusion of solutions would have been desirable despite thenecessary increase in page count.
After using the textbook for a semester, I have foundvery few factual errors in it; for example, the density of air isgiven as 2.8 g L{1 instead of 1.293 g L{1 (p 375). Even minortypographical errors, almost unavoidable in any first edition,are also scarce: anthoquinone for anthraquinone (p 321),Moisson in lieu of Moissan (p 351), or Hindenberg insteadof Hindenburg (p 376). The display of a modern periodictable on one of the inside covers, featured in many (if notmost) modern inorganic chemistry textbooks, would havebeen a plus. Nevertheless, Rayner-Canham’s is, overall, oneof the most readable inorganic chemistry textbooks I haveever seen and I enthusiastically recommend it, especially asan introductory book to the field.
Daniel RabinovichDepartment of ChemistryThe University of North Carolina at CharlotteCharlotte, NC [email protected]