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This book has been almost entirely rewritten, but its purpose and general organization remain the same as those of previous editions. The Introduction to the first (1945) edition included the following paragraph: 'The reasons for writing this book were, firstly, the conviction that the structural side of inorganic chemistry cannot be put on a sound basis until the knowledge gained from the study of the solid state has been incorporated into chemistry as an integral part of that subject, and secondly, the equally strong conviction that it is unsatisfactory merely to add information about the structures of solids to the descriptions of the elements and compounds as usually presented in a systematic treatment of inorganic chemistry’. Now, after a period of thirty years during which considerable advances have been made in solid state chemistry, it is still true to say that the structures and properties of solids receive very little attention in most treatments of inorganic chemistry, and this in spite of the fact that most elements and most inorganic compounds are solids at ordinary temperatures. This state of affairs would seem to be sufficient justification for the appearance of yet another edition of this book. Since the results of structural studies of crystals are described in crystallographic language the first requirement is that these results be made available in a form intelligible to chemists. It was this challenge that first attracted the author, and it is hoped that this book will continue to provide teachers of chemistry with facts and ideas which can be incorporated into their teaching. However, while any addition of structural information to the conventional teaching of inorganic chemistry is to be welcomed the real need is a radical change of outlook and the recognition that not only is the structure of a substance in all states of aggregation an essential part of its full description (or characterization) but also that the structures and properties of solids form an integral part, perhaps the major part, of the subject.
Symmetry
Polyhedra and nets
Sphere packings
Tetrahedral and octahedral structures
Some simple ax, structures
Bonds in molecules and crystals
Hydrogen: the noble gases
The halogens-simple halides
Complex, oxy-, and hydroxyhalides
Oxygen
Binary metal oxides
Complex oxides
Metal hydroxides, oxyhydroxides, and hy droxy-salts
Water and hydrates
Sulphur, selenium, and tellurium
Metal sulphides and oxysulphides
Arsenic, antimony, and bismuth
Carbon
Metal cyanides, carbides, carbonyls, and alkyls
Silicon
Boron
Copper, silver, and gold
The elements of subgroups iib, iiib, and ivb
Group V111 and other transition metals
The lanthanides and actinides
Metals and alloys