This book is the first to give a comprehensive account of the fundamental properties of metal-oxide surfaces and their interaction with atoms, molecules and overlayers. The surfaces of metal oxides play a crucial role in an extremely wide range of phenomena, including the environmental degradation of high-Tc superconductors and catalysis. They are also increasingly important in processes such as the passivation of metal surfaces and gas sensing for pollution monitoring and control. As well as giving a general overview of the properties of metal-oxides, an extensive and thorough compilation of the research that has been performed on well characterised oxide surfaces is provided, thus making the book suitable for those graduate students and established researchers in materials science, chemistry or physics who have an interest in metal-oxide surfaces.

Transition metal oxides form a series of compounds with a uniquely wide range of electronic properties. They have important applications as dielectrics, semiconductors and metals, and as materials for magnetic and optical uses. The discovery of high temperature superconductors has brought the attention of a wide scientific community to this area and has highlighted the problems involved in trying to understand transition metal oxides. The present book is not primarily about Tc superconductors, although their main properties are discussed in the final sections. The main aim is to describe the varied electronic behaviour shown by transition metal oxides, and to discuss the different types of theoretical models that have been proposed to interpret this behaviour.

Transition metal oxides form a series of compounds with a uniquely wide range of electronic properties. They have important applications as dielectrics,semiconductors, and metals, and as materials for magnetic and optical uses. The recent discovery of `high temperature' superconductors has brought the attention of a wide scientific community to this area and has highlighted the problems involved in trying to understand transition metal oxides. The present book is not primarily about Tc superconductors, although their main properties are discussed in the final sections. The main aim is to describe the varied electronic behaviour shown by transition metal oxides, and to discuss the different types of theoretical model that have been proposed to interpret it. It is intended to provide an introduction to this fascinating and difficult field, at a level suitable for graduate students and other research workers with a background in solid- state chemistry or physics.

Here is the first book to provide a complete natural history of the elements. This interdisciplinary guide will give the reader a broad, non-technical view of the origin of the elements, the factors controlling their abundances, and their distributions in the Earth, solar system, and universe. This unique volume is based on a series of lectures given for freshman chemistry students and will be of equal value to both undergraduates and professors in all physical sciences. It includes a broad introduction to the range of existing elements and information on their nuclear and chemical properties, as well as coverage of radioactive elements, the condensation of the elements, the elements of life and the oceans. Valuable appendix materials include coverage of elemental abundances and isotopic composition, while suggestions for further reading are provided at the end of each chapter.

All chemistry students need a basic understanding of quantum theory and its applications in atomic and molecular structure and spectroscopy. This book provides a gentle introduction to the subject with the required background in physics and mathematics kept to a minimum. It develops the basic concepts needed as background. The emphasis throughout is on the physical concepts and their application in chemistry, especially to atoms and to the periodic table of elements

Recent years have seen a considerable growth of interest in chemical aspects of the electronic structure of solids. Most books on solids are addressed to physicists, and present a more mathematical and fundamental account of the subject than is appropriate for students of chemistry. The present book takes a different view, and shows how the electronic structures and properties of solids can be described in terms familiar to chemists. The first three chapters give a fairly elementary account, suitable for undergraduate students with a reasonable grounding in inorganic and physical chemistry. The later chapters present slightly more advanced aspects, including many topics of current research interest, such as metal-insulator transitions, low-dimensional solids and 'molecular metals', and the properties of surfaces. The discussion is illustrated by a wide variety of examples.