Joseph Chatt was a pioneering figure in coordination chemistry. Intended as a record of Chatt's life, work, and influence, this book begins with a description of Chatt's career presented by co-workers, contemporaries, and students, then goes on to show that many of today's leading practitioners in the field have been influenced by Chatt. The latest research in coordination chemistry is presented to highlight Chatt's continuing legacy, in sections on the synthesis and reactivity of hydrido and dihydrogen complexes, the chemistry of phosphines, transition metal complexes of olefins and related isolobal ligands, chemistry related to dinitrogen complexes, the biological work of the ARC unit of nitrogen fixation at the University of Sussex, and patterns and generalizations in stability and reactivity. Leigh is affiliated with the University of Sussex, UK, and Winterton is affiliated with the University of Liverpool, UK. The book is distributed in the US by Springer Verlag. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR.

Coordination chemistry is the study of compounds formed between metal ions and other neutral or negatively charged molecules. This book offers a series of investigative inorganic laboratories approached through systematic coordination chemistry. It not only highlights the key fundamental components of the coordination chemistry field, it also exemplifies the historical development of concepts in the field. In order to graduate as a chemistry major that fills the requirements of the American Chemical Society, a student needs to take a laboratory course in inorganic chemistry. Most professors who teach and inorganic chemistry laboratory prefer to emphasize coordination chemistry rather than attempting to cover all aspects of inorganic chemistry; because it keeps the students focused on a cohesive part of inorganic chemistry, which has applications in medicine, the environment, molecular biology, organic synthesis, and inorganic materials.

Coordination chemistry, as we know it today, has been shaped by major figures from the past, one of whom was Joseph Chatt. Beginning with a description of Chatt's career presented by co-workers, contemporaries and students, this fascinating book then goes on to show how many of today's leading practitioners in the field, working in such diverse areas as phosphines, hydrogen complexes, transition metal complexes and nitrogen fixation, have been influenced by Chatt. The reader is then brought right up-to-date with the inclusion of some of the latest research on these topics, all of which serves to underline Chatt's continuing legacy. Intended as a permanent record of Chatt's life, work and influence, this book will be of interest to lecturers, graduate students, researchers and science historians.

Stability constants are fundamental to understanding the behavior of metal ions in aqueous solution. Such understanding is important in a wide variety of areas, such as metal ions in biology, biomedical applications, metal ions in the environment, extraction metallurgy, food chemistry, and metal ions in many industrial processes. In spite of this importance, it appears that many inorganic chemists have lost an appreciation for the importance of stability constants, and the thermodynamic aspects of complex formation, with attention focused over the last thirty years on newer areas, such as organometallic chemistry. This book is an attempt to show the richness of chemistry that can be revealed by stability constants, when measured as part of an overall strategy aimed at understanding the complexing properties of a particular ligand or metal ion. Thus, for example, there are numerous crystal structures of the Li+ ion with crown ethers. What do these indicate to us about the chemistry of Li+ with crown ethers? In fact, most of these crystal structures are in a sense misleading, in that the Li+ ion forms no complexes, or at best very weak complexes, with familiar crown ethers such as l2-crown-4, in any known solvent. Thus, without the stability constants, our understanding of the chemistry of a metal ion with any particular ligand must be regarded as incomplete. In this book we attempt to show how stability constants can reveal factors in ligand design which could not readily be deduced from any other physical technique.

At the heart of coordination chemistry lies the coordinate bond, in its simplest sense arising from donation of a pair of electrons from a donor atom to an empty orbital on a central metalloid or metal. Metals overwhelmingly exist as their cations, but these are rarely met ‘naked’ – they are clothed in an array of other atoms, molecules or ions that involve coordinate covalent bonds (hence the name coordination compounds). These metal ion complexes are ubiquitous in nature, and are central to an array of natural and synthetic reactions. Written in a highly readable, descriptive and accessible style Introduction to Coordination Chemistry describes properties of coordination compounds such as colour, magnetism and reactivity as well as the logic in their assembly and nomenclature. It is illustrated with many examples of the importance of coordination chemistry in real life, and includes extensive references and a bibliography. Introduction to Coordination Chemistry is a comprehensive and insightful discussion of one of the primary fields of study in Inorganic Chemistry for both undergraduate and non-specialist readers.

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