Introduction 1
Part I: Reviewing Some General Chemistry 7
Chapter 1: Introducing Inorganic Chemistry 9
Chapter 2: Following the Leader: Atomic Structure and Periodic Trends 21
Chapter 3: The United States of Oxidation 39
Chapter 4: Gone Fission: Nuclear Chemistry 53
Chapter 5: The ABCs: Acid-Base Chemistry 69
Part II: Rules of Attraction: Chemical Bonding 81
Chapter 6: No Mr. Bond, I Expect You to ?: Covalent Bonding 83
Chapter 7: Molecular Symmetry and Group Theory 101
Chapter 8: Ionic and Metallic Bonding 121
Chapter 9: Clinging to Complex Ions: Coordination Complexes 143
Part III: It's Elemental: Dining at the Periodic Table 159
Chapter 10: What the H? Hydrogen! 161
Chapter 11: Earning Your Salt: The Alkali and Alkaline Earth Metals 171
Chapter 12: The Main Groups 183
Chapter 13: Bridging Two Sides of the Periodic Table: The Transition Metals 207
Chapter 14: Finding What Lies Beneath: The Lanthanides and Actinides 221
Part IV: Special Topics 233
Chapter 15: Not Quite Organic, Not Quite Inorganic: Organometallics 235
Chapter 16: Accelerating Change: Catalysts 253
Chapter 17: Bioinorganic Chemistry: Finding Metals in Living Systems 267
Chapter 18: Living in a Materials World: Solid-State Chemistry 287
Chapter 19: Nanotechnology 305
Part V: The Part of Tens 313
Chapter 20: Ten Nobels 315
Chapter 21: Tools of the Trade: Ten Instrumental Techniques 319
Chapter 22: Ten Experiments 323
Chapter 23: Ten Inorganic Household Products 329
Glossary 335
Index 343
