Boktips!

Norman Greenwood: Mannen, myten, borkemisten!

Här är ett boktips för dig som vill lära dig allt om tung, deskriptiv, oorganisk kemi: Chemistry of the Elements av Greenwood och Earnshaw. Detta 1400-sidors epos finns i två upplagor och lyser upp vardagen för oorganiska kemister världen över.

Några smakprov:
"Nearly all boranes are highly toxic when inhaled or absorbed through the skin though they can be safely and conveniently handled with relatively minor precautions."

"There appears to be no end to the structural ingenuity of boron and, whilst it is true that many regularities can now be discerned in its stereochemistry, much more work is still needed to unravel the reaction pathways by which the compounds are formed and to elucidate the mechanisms by which they izomerise and interconvert."

"It is a curious paradox that NF3, the most stable binary halide of N, was not prepared until 1928, more than 115 y after the highly unstable NCl3 was prepared in 1811 by P.L.Dulong (who lost three fingers and an eye studying its properties)."

För er som trots denna härliga appetizer inte orkar läsa boken kan jag sammanfatta den såhär: Ge fan i halider av grundämnena i main group, de exploderar bara man tittar på dem.

Bilden från University of Leeds hemsida

/Kemisten