ABSTRACT
Most work in inorganic chemistry is carried out in solution and the observed results depend to a large extent on the properties of the solvent. These will be examined in this chapter. Water is still by far the commonest solvent, but an ever-increasing number of reactions are carried out in other solvent media. These range from solvents like liquid ammonia, which have much in common with water, through more exotic media like anhydrous hydrogen fluoride or liquid bromine trifluoride, to molten salts and even molten metals. The major features of aqueous chemistry are discussed first and then follows the extension of these principles to nonaqueous solvents, with detailed discussion of the properties of a small number of representative solvent systems.
