Chemistry and creativity: INDUSTRIAL INORGANIC CHEMISTRY
The book “Industrielle Anorganische Chemie” will fill a long term need, which has become even
more apparent since the appearance of “Industrielle Organische Chemie” by Wessermel and Arpe*.
Although there are comprehensive chapters on this branch of chemistry in a number of
encyclopedias and handbooks, a single volume text is lacking that describes concisely the current
state of industrial inorganic chemistry.
The authors have been made aware of this need in discussions with students, young chemists,
colleagues in neighboring fields, teachers and university lecturers and willingly accepted the
suggestion of the publishers to write this text. Changes in the supply of raw materials and their
markets and economic and ecological requirements are responsible for the continual reshaping of
the inorganic chemical industry. As a result the treatment of industrial processes in the available
textbooks seldom keeps pace with these developments.
The inorganic chemical industry is an important branch of industry and its structure is particularly
diverse: including a large number of finished products (mineral fertilizers, construction materials,
glass, enamels and pigments to name but a few) and basic products for the organic chemical
industry such as mineral acids, alkalis, oxidizing agents and halogens. Modern developments in
other branches of industry, such as chips for microelectronics, video cassettes and optical fibers
This book emphasises the manufacturing processes, economic importance and applications of
products. In the sections on production the pros and cons are considered in the context of the raw
material situation, economic and ecological considerations and energy consumption, the different
situations in different countries also being taken into account. Processes which are no longer
operated are at most briefly mentioned. The properties of the products are only considered to the
extent that they are relevant for production or applications.
It was necessary to restrict the material to avoid overextending the brief. Metallurgical processes
have not been included, except for the manufacture of “chemical” metals (e.g. alkali metals) which
is briefly described. Several borderline areas with organic chemistry are considered (e.g. organophosphorus,
-silicon and -fluoro products), others are deliberately excluded. A whole chapter is
devoted to the nuclear fuel cycle, since it involves so much industrial scale inorganic chemistry and
is currently so important.
The layout follows that of its sister book “Industrielle Organische Chemie” with the main text
being supplemented by marginal notes. These are essentially summaries of the main text and
enable the reader to obtain a rapid grasp of the most important facts. The equations are printed on a
gray background for the same reason.
Content
2.Mineral Fertilizers
3.Metals and their Compounds
4.Organo-Silicon Compounds
5.Inorganic Solids
6.Nuclear Fuel Cycle
