Chemical Applications of Group Theory, 3rd Edition

by F. Albert Cotton

Retains the easy-to-read format and informal flavor of the previous editions, and includes new material on the symmetric properties of extended arrays (crystals), projection operators, LCAO molecular orbitals, and electron counting rules. Also contains many new exercises and illustrations.

Genres: Chemistry, Science, Academic, Mathematics

480 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Oftenevil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely essential for any doctorate level Inorganic Chemist or Material Scientist.

Re-defines the concept of spacial-reasoning and the way you will now be able to better understand the complex nuances of every kind of chemical interaction on both atomic and molecular levels.

Linear Algebra on a basic level is absolutely required before this material is accessible to anyone. As well as Calculus courses I, II, & III (w/ analytic geometry). Last but not least, differential equations will go a long way as well to making this incredible easy to process.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a difficult subject, but Cotton does a decent job explaining it. In my community is seems to be the go-to book for understanding group theory in terms of spectroscopy. I appreciated that the book was broken into two sections: half the book focusing on a general introduction of the theory and how to think about everything and half the book dedicated to applications.

[Y. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good text book discussing the application of group theory in chemistry. In addition to the applications, how theories are derived is also discussed. The topics like Woodward-Hoffman rules and ligand field theory are new to me and they provide very good insights.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The preface to the book starts out with the lofty and laudable claim that its objective is to provide a book that 1) does not shy away from providing the reasons behind group theoretic methods to analyze the symmetry-related properties of molecules, yet 2) "'can be read in bed without a pencil'" (yes, a quote of a quote, although I'm pulling it from memory).

Unsurprisingly, it falls short of this ambition; in my estimation, it misses both goals by about the same amount. Cotton had only a nodding acquaintance with the notion of "proof", which cuts both ways, both in lack of rigor and lack of clarity.

That said, it's still one of the more lucid midlevel physics or chemistry texts I have encountered. Actually following the book all the way through, even without doing any of the exercises, allowed me to bootstrap my way to a higher level of understanding than I had when I took the associated class 15 years ago and gave me some serious help in sorting out a core issue in the literature I was reading.

[Brian Bloom · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my opinion there isn't a better book out there on the topic.

[Venkatesan]

reaD FIRST