Inorganic · Undergraduate
Inorganic Chemistry
Catherine Housecroft, Alan Sharpe · 2018
Comprehensive treatment of the principles, structures, and reactions of the elements.
Inside the book
Housecroft and Sharpe's Inorganic Chemistry (5th edition, 2018) is the comprehensive modern treatment of the chemistry of all the elements and their compounds.
Key ideas covered:
• Atomic structure and periodicity — how electronic structure explains the trends of the periodic table.
• Bonding models: ionic, covalent, molecular orbital theory, and band theory of solids.
• Chemistry of the main group elements, organised group by group across the table.
• Coordination chemistry of the transition metals: ligands, crystal field theory, colour and magnetism.
• Organometallic chemistry and catalysis — the chemistry behind industrial processes.
• Bioinorganic chemistry: metals in enzymes, oxygen transport, and medicine.
Why it matters: It is the standard reference for everything the periodic table can do beyond organic molecules.
Read the book — chapter by chapter
Chapter 1 — Atoms and Periodicity
Electrons occupy orbitals defined by quantum numbers n, l and mₗ, filled in order of energy (Aufbau principle, Hund's rule, Pauli principle). The resulting configurations explain periodic trends: atomic radius decreases across a period and increases down a group; ionisation energy and electronegativity do the opposite.
These trends let you predict which elements form cations, which form anions, and what charges they adopt.
Chapter 2 — Bonding and Structure
Simple molecules are described with Lewis structures and VSEPR theory: electron pairs repel and arrange as far apart as possible, giving linear, trigonal, tetrahedral and octahedral shapes. Molecular orbital theory explains bond order and magnetism — it shows why O₂ is paramagnetic.
Ionic solids are described by lattice types (NaCl, CsCl, fluorite) and lattice energy, calculated with the Born–Haber cycle.
Chapter 3 — Acids, Bases and Redox
Brønsted acids donate protons; Lewis acids accept electron pairs, which covers metal ions binding ligands. The hard–soft acid–base principle predicts which partners prefer each other.
Redox reactions are summarised by standard reduction potentials, Latimer and Frost diagrams, and Ellingham diagrams that show which reducing agent can extract a metal from its ore.
Chapter 4 — The d-Block and Coordination Chemistry
Transition metals form complexes with ligands. Crystal field theory explains that ligands split the d orbitals; the size of the split decides colour and whether a complex is high- or low-spin. The spectrochemical series ranks ligands from weak (I⁻) to strong (CN⁻, CO).
The book then surveys main-group families, organometallic compounds, catalysis (such as the Haber process and Ziegler–Natta polymerisation) and the role of metals like iron, zinc and copper in living systems.