Page 17 - Arrow Pushing in Inorganic Chemistry A Logical Approach to the Chemistry of the Main Group Elements

PREFACE xv

formulate a hypothesis on how a reaction might happen than to have no inkling whatsoever
about the mechanism.
Content and organization. Chapter 1 attempts to provide a summary of all relevant intro-
ductory concepts, paving the way for a full appreciation of the rest of the book. The chapter
begins with a discussion of nucleophiles and electrophiles, continues on to present a survey
of the major organic reaction types (substitution, elimination, addition, etc.) and of some
specifically inorganic reaction types (oxidative addition, reductive elimination, metathesis,
migrations, etc.), and concludes with an elementary discussion of hypervalent compounds.
The subsequent chapters are organized according to the groups of the periodic table, from
left to right. Chapter 2 deals with the s-block elements, providing a combined treatment
of hydrogen, the alkali metals, and the alkaline earth metals. For the p block, the chapter
number is generally the same as the old group number; thus, the chalcogens are discussed
in Chapter 6, the halogens in Chapter 7, and so on. The only exception is group 15, which
we have split up into two chapters, 5a and 5b: Chapter 5a is devoted to nitrogen and Chapter
5b to the heavier pnictogens.
As far as any given chapter is concerned, the goal has been not so much to provide a
systematic account of a given group of main-group elements (although we believe that we
have done so moderately well) as to help students figure out the inner workings of relatively
complicated-looking reactions. We have done so by organizing each chapter as a series
of vignettes, focusing on reactions that in our opinion are most conducive to sharpening
students’ arrow-pushing skills. In-chapter review problems are designed to further hone
these skills as well as to provide material for in-class discussions and recitation sections.
We have refrained from including end-of-chapter problems, in part out of a desire to limit
the book to a manageable length. Students in need of additional exercises should find an
ample supply of reactions in their regular descriptive inorganic text.
As far as our choice of reactions and topics is concerned, we have attempted to offer a
stimulating mix of the traditional and the topical. For the traditional material, we have bor-
rowed freely from introductory and advanced texts with a “descriptive inorganic” emphasis.
These books are listed in Appendix 1. The Wikipedia has also been a valuable resource for
this purpose. On occasion, we have played science historian and thrown in an anecdote
or an amusing quote. The more cutting-edge material has been sourced from the research
literature. Examples of such topics include:
• Jones’s Mg(I)–Mg(I) reagent
• indium-mediated allylations
• heavy-element carbene, alkene, and alkyne analogs
• the Ruppert–Prakash and Togni reagents
• BrF and higher valent bromine compounds as synthetic reagents
3
• the recent arsenic-DNA controversy
• the possible role of borate minerals in the origin of life (possibly even on Mars!)
Because this is an introductory text, however, we have cited the original research literature
sparingly, often settling for a short list of suggested readings at the end of each chapter.
Stylistic aspects. A few comments on stylistic aspects of the book might be helpful.
Perhaps foremost among them is the use of color in our reaction mechanisms, which include
blue, black, red, and green. In general, the first nucleophile in a given mechanism is always
indicated in blue and the first electrophile in black. Later in the mechanism, if the atoms
originating in the initial nucleophile take on a different role, such as that of an electrophile,