Contrasts with Organic Chemistry

FIGURE 1 -1 Single and Multiple Bonds in Organic and Inorganic Molecules. 

FIGURE 1-3 Examples of Inorganic Compounds Containing Terminal and Bridging Hydrogens and Alkyl Groups. 

Furthermore, inorganic compounds present coordination geometries different from those found for carbon. For example, although 4-coordinate carbon is nearly always tetrahedral, both tetrahedral and square planar shapes occur for 4-coordinate compounds of both metals and nonmetals. When metals are the central atoms, with anions or neutral molecules bonded to them (frequently through N, O, or S), these are called coordination complexes when carbon is the element directly bonded to metal atoms or ions, they are called organometaUic compounds. 

FIGURE 1-5 Inorganic Compounds Containing Pi-bonded Aromatic Rings. 

There are no sharp dividing lines between subfields in chemistry. Many of the subjects in this book, such as acid-base chemistry and organometallic reactions, are of vital interest to organic chemists. Others, such as oxidation-reduction reactions, spectra. 

Some of the most striking differences between the chemistry of carbon and that of many other elements are in coordination number and geometry. Although carbon is usually limited to a maximum coordination number of four (a maximum of four atoms bonded 

FIGURE 1.6 Inorganic Compounds Containing Pi-Bonded Aromatic Rings. 

In addition, since the mid-1980s the chemistry of elemental carbon has flourished. This phenomenon began with the discovery of fullerenes, most notably the cluster Cgo, dubbed buckminsterfullerene after the developer of the geodesic dome. Many other fullerenes (buckyballs) are now known and serve as cores of a variety of derivatives. In 

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In contrast to organic chemistry, where extensive studies have attempted to correlate nucleophilicity with various parameters (e.g., the Swain-Scott, Edwards, and Ritchie equations), there is currently little quantitative information concerning nucleophilic reactivities toward coordinated ir-hydrocarbons. Recent kinetic studies of reactions shown in equations (10) and (11) have established... 

There are many transition metal ion oxidants used in organic chemistry for the interconversion of functional groups. Those which have been used for the preparation of sulphones from sulphoxides will be discussed below. It is very interesting to note that this type of oxidant often reacts more rapidly with sulphoxides than with sulphides and so sulphoxides may be selectively oxidized with transition metal ion oxidants in the presence of sulphides. This is in direct contrast to the oxidation of sulphides and sulphoxides with peracids and periodate, for example, where the rate of reaction of the sulphide is more than 100 times that for the corresponding sulphoxide. 

However, in contrast to the field of catalysis, not many high-ranked organic chemistry experts have so far opened their research to micro-reactor studies and have become active (for some exceptions see, e.g., [29,47, 338-341]). Organic synthesis journals and conferences have yet not recognized to a great extent micro reactors, an exception being [82, 342]. This is, however, not true for researchers oriented towards analytical chemistry. In conjimction with pTAS developments, more and more work is being done in that area. 

The elimination of hydrogen halide from organic halides under basic conditions generates alkenes and is a fundamental reaction in organic chemistry. It is sometimes carried out with a base in aqueous media.14 In contrast, the corresponding Hofmann-type eliminations of quaternary ammonium hydroxides are frequently carried out in aqueous media,15 which will be covered in Chapter 11. 

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