Importance of Inorganic Chemistry

Probably the most significant single event in polymer education occurrred in 1978. The latest edition of "Undergraduate Professional Education in Chemistry Criteria and Evaluation Procedures" by the ACS Committee on Professional Training contains "In view of the current importance of inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, and polymer chemistry, advanced courses in these areas... 

The Board of Editors of Inorganic Syntheses has been more than pleased with the reception accorded to Volumes I and II of this series. The importance of inorganic chemistry as a distinctive branch of chemistry, so clearly defined by developments in the Second World War, has not only encouraged and stimulated the Editorial Board to continue its efforts to make available tried and tested procedures for the preparation of inorganic compounds, but has demonstrated beyond question the need for information of the sort presented in these volumes. The very fact that almost half of the syntheses contained in the present volume were submitted by, or checked in, industrial laboratories is evidence of the usefulness of these volumes. 

In the 1870s most chemists did routine testing for industrial concerns, performing analyses based upon classical gravimetric and volumetric methods. The importance of inorganic chemistry followed naturally from the centrality... 

Two works provide exceUent coUections of articles describiag important modem appfications of PGMs. These are E. H. Hardey, ed.. The Chemistry of Platinum Group Metals, Elsevier, 1991, and Gmelin Handbook of Inorganic Chemistry Platinum Suppl Vol. Al, Sptinger-Vedag, New York, 1986. 

In the study of inorganic chemistry, it is important to understand how atoms vary in size. The relative sizes of atoms determine to some extent the molecular structures that are possible. Table 1.2 shows the sizes of atoms in relationship to the periodic table. 

Reactions in solids are often vastly different from those that take place in solutions. Because many of the reactions in the solid state involve inorganic materials, an introduction to this important topic is presented in this chapter to show some of the principles that are applicable to this area of inorganic chemistry. The emphasis is on showing several types of reactions, but no attempt is made to present comprehensive coverage of the hundreds of reactions that take place in the solid state. Although some 255... 

Perhaps the greatest area in which the Lewis acid-base approach is most useful is that of coordination chemistry. In the formation of coordination compounds, Lewis acids such as Cr3+, Co3+, Pt2+, or Ag+ bind to a certain number (usually 2, 4, or 6) of groups as a result of electron pair donation and acceptance. Typical electron pair donors include H20, NH3, F , CN , and many other molecules and ions. The products, known as coordination compounds or coordination complexes, have definite structures that are predictable in terms of principles of bonding. Because of the importance of this area of inorganic chemistry, Chapters 16 through 22 in this book are devoted to coordination chemistry. 

In view of the difficulties that accompany the use of a nonaqueous solvent, one may certainly ask why such use is necessary. The answer includes several of the important principles of nonaqueous solvent chemistry that will be elaborated on in this chapter. First, solubilities are different. In some cases, classes of compounds are more soluble in some nonaqueous solvents than they are in water. Second, the strongest acid that can be used in an aqueous solution is H30+. As was illustrated in Chapter 9, any acid that is stronger than H30+ will react with water to produce H30+. In some other solvents, it is possible to routinely work with acids that are stronger than H30+. Third, the strongest base that can exist in aqueous solutions is OH-. Any stronger base will react with water to produce OH-. In some nonaqueous solvents, a base stronger than OH - can exist, so it is possible to carry out certain reactions in such a solvent that cannot be carried out in aqueous solutions. These differences permit synthetic procedures to be carried out in nonaqueous solvents that would be impossible when water is the solvent. As a result, chemistry in nonaqueous solvents is an important area of inorganic chemistry, and this chapter is devoted to the presentation of a brief overview of this area. 

In addition to the organic chemistry of carbon compounds, the element is also important in inorganic chemistry. In recent years, an extensive chemistry of the fullerenes, C60 and its derivatives, has become one of the most active new areas of inorganic and organic chemistry. There is no clear separation of the two fields even though they were believed to be separate for many years. In 1828, Friedrich Wohler converted ammonium cyanate into urea,... 

In this chapter, we have surveyed some of the most active and important areas of inorganic chemistry. The published literature in these fields is prodigious, so in keeping with a general textbook in inorganic chemistry that must introduce many fields, the coverage is far from complete. For further details on the material in this chapter, the interested reader should consulted the references listed. 

The importance of metals has been long known but it is only in the past three decades that some of their specific roles have begun to be elucidated. It is perhaps not surprising that iron, the most naturally abundant of all metals, should play many important roles in nature. We shall present here one small aspect of this rapidly expanding area of inorganic chemistry, namely that of the functioning of iron when coordinated to porphyrins CL, 2, 3). Figure 2 shows the major heme proteins... 

We have included introductory chapters to enable readers who come from a more biological background to understand the notions of inorganic chemistry, and vice versa to explain chemists the important notions of structural and molecular biology, which will be necessary to follow our path through the diverse roles of metals in biological systems. 

In the field of inorganic chemistry an important group of substances and transformations is represented by the intermetallic compounds (or phases) and by the reactions among metallic elements. 

Electrocatalysis. There is a particular type of ECE electrode reaction mechanism which is designated as liCE (the arrows indicate that the second electron transfer consists of a inverse reaction with respect to the first). This process is called electrocatalysis and is of importance in inorganic chemistry.13... 

Finally, an aspect of controlled potential electrolysis that is growing in importance in inorganic chemistry is the generation of appreciable... 

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