Page 20 - Arrow Pushing in Inorganic Chemistry A Logical Approach to the Chemistry of the Main Group Elements

Advance praise for Arrow Pushing in
Inorganic Chemistry: A Logical Approach to
the Chemistry of the Main-Group Elements

I tell my organic students to “think like a molecule”. What are the molecules doing, and why
are they doing that? Since the essence of a chemical reaction is the reorganization of bonds
(i.e., electrons), the primary tool for understanding it is arrow pushing. It’s a real delight
to see that this fundamental approach indeed works beautifully in inorganic chemistry as
well. It makes one wonder why it hadn’t been “discovered” sooner. Congratulations to the
authors for an excellent expository textbook.— Professor Carl C. Wamser, Portland State
University

It’s great to see a key organic skill, arrow pushing, applied to inorganic chemistry, where
there’s plenty extra to think about—redox chemistry along with wide variations in atomic
size and electronegativity. The strength of the approach is that all this can be taken into
account. A powerful new way of thinking for inorganic chemists!—Dr. David Ware and
Professor Penny Brothers, University of Auckland, New Zealand

In my Metals in Biology course, I tell my students the simplest lesson of chemistry: electrons
flow from where they are to where they aren’t. This is the essence of the ‘arrow pushing’ for-
malism, which had its origins in physical organic chemistry. My early training in that field
led me to use the arrow pushing language in my own research in bioinorganic chemistry. I
am delighted to see this language applied much more generally to inorganic chemistry in
this very illuminating and instructive book. Students will learn where electrons want to go
and their appreciation of how reactions occur will be greatly enhanced. — Professor John
T. Groves, Princeton University

Nice up-to-date stuff, including frustrated Lewis pairs, Jones’s Mg(I) reagent, high-valent
bromine and lots more! It would have been easy for the authors to ignore the last twenty
years (or fifty) but they didn’t do that! — Professor Paul A. Deck, Virginia Tech

I was struck by the sheer amount of innovation, thought, and attention to detail that has gone
into the making of this book. In cases where arrow pushing does not immediately indicate
a unique mechanism, the authors have even resorted to DFT calculations to resolve the
ambiguity. — Professor Jeanet Conradie, University of the Free State, Republic of South
Africa

… Valence is an important concept in inorganic chemistry and it’s nice to see the authors
do full justice to the topic. They carefully distinguish valence and oxidation state, which
are often confused, and draw structures with appropriate formal charges that shed light on
the bonding. Furthermore, their treatment of the fascinating chemistry of the higher-valent
states of p-block elements is superb. — Professor Gerard Parkin, Columbia University

… The marriage between descriptive inorganic chemistry and the language of orga-
nic reaction mechanisms is convincingly consummated in this new and most useful
contribution. — Professor Peter R. Taylor, University of Melbourne