Physical Inorganic Chemistry: A Coordination Chemistry Approach / الكيمياء الفيزيائية غير العضوية: منهاج كيمياء منسق

Physical Inorganic Chemistry: Some twenty years ago, theoretical aspects of inorganic chemistry formed a major component of any inorganic textbook.

Today, this component is much less evident.

No doubt, this shift in emphasis is a proper response both to the undue weight then given to theoretical aspects and to the developments that have taken place elsewhere in the subject.

However, in the interval there have been theoretical developments that deserve a place; further, it has probably become more difficult for the interested student to access the older work.

There seemed to me to be a real need for an easy-to-read, and so largely non-mathematical, text that would bridge the gap between the relatively low-level treatments currently available and the research-level paper, review, monograph, or text.

The present book was written with the objective of providing a bridge for this gap.

Although the motivation for writing it is seen in its theoretical content, it was recognized that there are advantages in placing this in a broader context.

So, what has resulted is a book which contains an overview of the relatively traditional and elementary along with contemporary research areas, wherever possible viewed from an integrated theoretical perspective.

Because a text on physical inorganic chemistry can easily become a series of apparently disconnected topics, I have given the subject a focus, that of coordination chemistry, and have included chapters which should enable the book to double as a text in that area.

To keep the size of the book manageable, to recognize that it is aimed at the intermediate-stage reader, and because the topic is covered so extensively elsewhere, I have assumed knowledge of the most elementary aspects of bonding theory.

In a book such as this, it is impossible to avoid cross-references between chapters.

However, it is equally difficult to ensure that such cross-references supply the answers expected of them.

I have therefore attempted to make each chapter as free-standing as possible and have used the resulting duplications as a mechanism for deepening the discussion.

This strategy can produce its own problems as well as benefits; I hope that the index will provide direction to sufficient additional material to deal with the problems! 

I am indebted to many institutions which provided the hospitality that enabled most of the book to be written-Chalmers University and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden; the Royal Military College, Kingston, Canada; the University of Turin, Italy; the University of Nairobi, Kenya; Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan; the University

of Szeged, Hungary and Northwestern University, USA.

Of the numerous individuals who have provided helpful comments on sections of the book, and often offered material for inclusion, I am grateful to Professor R. Archer and his students at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA, who made many detailed comments on an early edition of the text, to Professor K. Burger of the University of Szeged, Hungary-his contributions were very helpful-and to Dr. S. Cotton, who was a constant fund of comment and information.

I am particularly indebted to the Rev. Dr. lain Paul who, in his own inimitable manner, worked through every sentence and made a multitude of suggestions for improvement and clarification. Defects, errors and omissions, of course, are my own responsibility.