Basic Inorganic Chemistry

by Paul L. Gaus, F. Albert Cotton, Geoffrey Wilkinson, et al.

Book Overview

A systematic and descriptive approach to the first facts of inorganic chemistry. A firm and traditional presentation with a unified approach to the correlations and connections among properties, structures, reactivities, periodicities, and behaviors of the elements and their compounds. Discusses bonding based on the overlap criterion of bond strength, the rigors of bonding being presented without developing the math. Gives expanded treatment of periodicity,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471029696
• ISBN13: 9780471029694
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 708 Pages
• Weight: 3.22 lbs.

Customer Reviews

good review of all elements

This book can be regarded as a good review of all elements and their properties. This is also a good introduction to an inorganic chemistry for the first years chemistry student.

Best overall text

I had the first edition of this book as a student and used it my first years teaching inorganic chemistry before I tried other books. The reason I left this text to try others is that there is just so much information here and not the best organization for the order in which I teach inorganic. However, that being said, I am now returning to this classic from Cotton, Wilkinson & Gaus. The main reason being I had fewer student complaints about the text when I used this book vs. the others. As other reviewers mentioned, the text is encyclopedic! And you end up jumping around to find what you want; however, Cotton et al. has the most complete volume for the undergraduate & beginning graduate course, so that you can pick & choose what you want to cover without much problem. For those with a descriptive bent, there are many descriptive chemistry chapters. For others who have a bit more physical inorganic bent, there is good coverage of those topics. I've used texts on both ends of the spectrum, and I found they only pleased a small portion of the students, while others struggled. This book has everything you want in a beginning course, and more (!) while being flexible enough that you can design your own course by picking chapters to cover. Finally, for the student, it is an excellent reference to keep for the future.

Great text for introductory inorganic chemistry textbooks

This textbook is written in an easy to follow matter unlike other inorganic textbooks in the market that is harder to understand.It gives good examples for an introductory course especially for first year University students.The only downside is that, advanced concepts are not or insufficiently discussed.But in the Advanced Inorganic Chemistry textbook by the same author,these concepts are discussed in more depth. I would recommend that any student who is interesed in inorganic chemistry should get both the basic inorganic and advanced inorganic textbooks .With these two books you should have no problem understanding the wide topic of inorganic chemistry.By using an introductory and an advanced text, the student is slowly introduced to the topic.Instead of being thrown headon into reading and understanding a single inorganic chemistry book

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Excellent book.

This highly recommended text is one of the best textbooks I have ever encountered. It has a content comparable to a graduate level synthesis course but easily understood by the undergraduate. Everyone that I have ever lent this book to feels that it is engaging and very detailed. Expensive, but quality definitely comes at this price.