Page 13 - Arrow Pushing in Inorganic Chemistry A Logical Approach to the Chemistry of the Main Group Elements

Foreword

Many years ago George Hammond and I taught a course at Caltech that included discussions
of main-group chemistry. We tried to use inorganic textbooks that dealt with the subject, but
we were not happy with them, as they paid no attention to reaction mechanisms. Discus-
sions of nucleophilic and electrophilic reagents, associative and dissociative substitutions,
reaction energy landscapes, and so on, were nowhere to be found. Faced with this problem,
we decided to base our course on reaction mechanisms, but very few instructors adopted
this approach in teaching main-group chemistry.
Now, at long last, we have a book on main-group chemistry that students can learn from!
They may even read it from cover to cover without going to sleep! The authors, Abhik
Ghosh and Steffen Berg, have clearly demonstrated how a mechanistic approach makes the
reactions of main-group elements interesting and understandable: Arrow pushing is the key!
There are many parts of the book that I like very much. The treatment of the reactions
of nitrogen compounds, largely neglected in inorganic courses, is particularly good. And
one of my favorites, the very rich chemistry of high-valent halogen and xenon molecules,
is excellent. The bottom line is that arrow pushing is a method that should be used to teach
main-group chemistry. As the authors note, their book logically can be used to supplement
standard inorganic texts. I urge instructors to try the Ghosh–Berg method when faced with
teaching the dreaded “descriptive” section of the inorganic course. Arrow pushing not only
is great fun, students who try it may actually learn main-group chemistry!

Harry B. Gray
California Institute of Technology
February 2014

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