|
|
Inorganic chemistry is a division of chemistry that studies metals, their compounds, and their reactivity. Metal atoms can be bound to other metal atoms in alloys or metal clusters, to nonmetal elements in crystalline rocks, or to small organic molecules, such as a cyclopentadienyl anion in ferrocene. These metal atoms can also be part of large biological molecules, as in the case of iron in hemoglobin (oxygen-carrier protein in the blood). In this course, you should not think of metals as you encounter them in your daily life (i.e., when you pick up a steel knife, a can of soda, or a gold necklace). Instead, you should think of a metal as the central atom or ion in a molecule surrounded by other ions or small molecules called ligands. Depending on what these ligands are, the metal-containing compound can acquire very different physical and chemical properties. For example, when magnesium (in its ionic state) is bound to carbonate ions, it forms solid crystalline rocks, as in the dolomite rocks (c…
|
|
0
0
