About the Authors -- Contents at a Glance -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- About This Book -- Conventions Used in This Book -- What You Don't Need to Read -- Foolish Assumptions -- How This Book Is Organized -- Icons Used in This Book -- Where to Go from Here -- Part I: Reviewing Some General Chemistry -- Chapter 1: Introducing Inorganic Chemistry -- Building the Foundation -- Getting a Grip on Chemical Bonding -- Traveling Across the Periodic Table -- Diving Deeper: Special Topics -- Listing 40 More -- Chapter 2: Following the Leader: Atomic Structure and Periodic Trends -- Up an' Atom: Reviewing Atomic Terminology -- Grouping Elements in the Periodic Table -- Chapter 3: The United States of Oxidation -- Entering the Oxidation-Reduction Zone -- Walking through a Redox Reaction -- Isolating Elements -- Chapter 4: Gone Fission: Nuclear Chemistry -- Noting Nuclear Properties -- Documenting Atomic Decay: Radioactivity -- Catalyzing a Nuclear Reaction -- Chapter 5: The ABCs: Acid-Base Chemistry -- Starting with the Basics: Acids and Bases -- Touring Key Theories: A Historical Perspective -- Comparing Lewis and Brønsted theories -- Pearson's Hard and Soft Acids and Bases (HSAB) -- Strapping on a Cape: Superacids -- Part II: Rules of Attraction: Chemical Bonding -- Chapter 6: No Mr. Bond, I Expect You to π: Covalent Bonding -- Connecting the Dots: Lewis Structures -- Keeping Your Distance: VSEPR -- Ante Up One Electron: Valence-Bond Theory -- Summing It All Up: Molecular Orbital Theory -- Chapter 7: Molecular Symmetry and Group Theory -- Identifying Molecules: Symmetry Elements and Operations -- It's Not Polite to Point! Molecular Point Groups -- Being Such a Character Table -- Chapter 8: Ionic and Metallic Bonding -- Blame It on Electrostatic Attraction: Forming Ionic Bonds -- Admiring Ionic Crystals.

"I'm Melting!" Dissolving Ionic Compounds with Water: Solubility -- What Is a Metal, Anyway? -- Swimming in the Electron Sea: Metallic Bonding Theories -- Chapter 9: Clinging to Complex Ions: Coordination Complexes -- Identifying Isomers -- Naming Coordination Complexes -- Sorting Out the Salts -- Creating Metal Complexes throughout the Periodic Table -- Applying Coordination Complexes in the Real World -- Part III: It's Elemental: Dining at the Periodic Table -- Chapter 10: What the H? Hydrogen! -- Visiting Hydrogen at Home: Its Place in the Periodic Table -- Appreciating the Merits of Hydrogen -- Introducing Hydrogen Isotopes -- Investing in Hydrogen Bonds -- Applying Itself: Hydrogen's Uses in Chemistry and Industry -- Chapter 11: Earning Your Salt: The Alkali and Alkaline Earth Metals -- Salting the Earth: Group 1 Elements -- Reacting Less Violently: The Group 2 Alkaline Earth Metals -- Diagramming the Diagonal Relationship -- Chapter 12: The Main Groups -- Placing Main Group Elements on the Periodic Table -- Lucky 13: The Boron Group -- The Diamond Club: The Carbon Group -- Noting Pnictides of the Nitrogen Group -- Keeping Up with the Chalcogens -- (Re)Active Singles: The Group 17 Halogens -- Lights of New York: The Group 18 Noble Gases -- Chapter 13: Bridging Two Sides of the Periodic Table: The Transition Metals -- Getting to Know Transition Metals -- Partially Filling d-Orbitals -- Splitting the Difference: Crystal Field Theory and Transition Metal Complexes -- Electronic Structure and Bonding -- Chapter 14: Finding What Lies Beneath: The Lanthanides and Actinides -- Spending Quality Time with the Rare Earth Elements: Lanthanides -- Feelin' Radioactive: The Actinides -- Comparing Reactivity: Actinide versus Lanthanide -- Looking More Closely at Uranium -- Part IV: Special Topics.

Chapter 15: Not Quite Organic, Not Quite Inorganic: Organometallics -- Building Organometallic Complexes -- Adhering to Electron Rules -- Bonding with Metals: Ligands -- Including Carbon: Carbonyls -- Providing the Best Examples -- Behaving Oddly: Organometallics of Groups 1, 2, and 12 -- Sandwiched Together: Metallocenes -- Clustering Together: Metal-Metal Bonding -- Creating Vacancies: Insertion and Elimination -- Synthesizing Organometallics -- Showing Similarities with Main Group Chemistry -- Chapter 16: Accelerating Change: Catalysts -- Speeding Things Up - The Job of a Catalyst -- Considering Types of Catalysts -- Chapter 17: Bioinorganic Chemistry: Finding Metals in Living Systems -- Focusing on Photosynthesis -- Climbing Aboard the Oxygen Transport -- Feeding a Nitrogen Fixation -- Being Human -- Answering When Nature Calls: Environmental Chemistry -- Chapter 18: Living in a Materials World: Solid-State Chemistry -- Studying Solid Structures -- Three Types of Crystal Structure -- Calculating Crystal Formation: The Born-Haber Cycle -- Bonding and Other Characteristics -- Synthesizing Solid Structures -- Detecting Crystal Defects -- Chapter 19: Nanotechnology -- Defining nanotechnology -- Nanomaterials -- Applications for Nanotechnology -- Part V: The Part of Tens -- Chapter 20: Ten Nobels -- Locating Ligands: Alfred Werner -- Making Ammonia: Fritz Haber -- Creating Transuranium Elements: McMillan and Seaborg -- Adding Electronegativity: Pauling -- Preparing Plastics: Ziegler and Natta -- Sandwiching Compounds: Fischer and Wilkinson -- Illuminating Boron Bonds: Lipscomb -- Characterizing Crystal Structures: Hauptman and Karle -- Creating Cryptands: Jean-Marie Lehn -- Making Buckyballs -- Chapter 21: Tools of the Trade: Ten Instrumental Techniques -- Absorbing and Transmitting Light Waves: UV-vis and IR -- Catching Diffracted Light: XRD.

Rearranging Excited Atoms: XRF -- Measuring Atoms in Solution: ICP/AA -- Detecting Secondary Electrons: SEM -- Reading the Criss-Crossed Lines: TEM -- Characterizing Surface Chemistry: XPS -- Evaporating Materials: TGA -- Cyclic Voltammetry -- Tracking Electron Spin: EPR -- Chapter 22: Ten Experiments -- Turning Blue: The Clock Reaction -- Forming Carbon Dioxide -- The Presence of Carbon Dioxide -- Mimicking Solubility -- Separating Water into Gas -- Testing Conductivity of Electrolyte Solutions -- Lemon Batteries -- Purifying Hydrogen -- Colorful Flames -- Making Gunpowder -- Chapter 23: Ten Inorganic Household Products -- Salting Your Food -- Bubbling with Hydrogen Peroxide -- Baking with Bicarbonate -- Whitening with Bleach -- Using Ammonia in Many Ways -- Killing Pests with Borax -- Soothing Babies with Talc -- Cleaning with Lye -- Scratching Stainless Steel -- Wrapping It Up with Aluminum Foil -- Glossary -- Index.