Chemistry: The Central Science in SI Units, Expanded Edition, Global Edition, 15th edition

Published by Pearson (7 October 2021) © 2022

  • Theodore E. Brown Emeritus) University of Illinois
  • H Eugene LeMay University of Nevada, Reno
  • Bruce E. Bursten Worcester Polytechnic Institute
  • Catherine Murphy University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • Patrick Woodward The Ohio State University
  • Matthew E. Stoltzfus The Ohio State University

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Title overview

Chemistry shapes the world around us, from the medicines that improve health to the materials, energy sources and technologies that support modern life. Chemistry: The Central Science helps students build a deep understanding of the principles that underpin the subject, connecting foundational concepts with real-world applications. Covering topics from atomic structure and chemical reactions to thermodynamics, equilibrium and organic chemistry, it supports learners as they develop the knowledge, confidence and problem-solving skills needed for success in general chemistry.

Through visual explanations, scientific inquiry and targeted practice, students learn to think critically about chemical processes and apply their understanding in meaningful ways. Real-world examples and contemporary applications demonstrate the relevance of chemistry across healthcare, environmental science, engineering and industry. By strengthening analytical reasoning, quantitative skills and scientific thinking, learners are better prepared for further study and a wide range of STEM pathways.

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Key features

  • Connect ideas across multiple areas of chemistry to build a more complete understanding of how key concepts relate to one another.
  • Develop scientific reasoning and critical-thinking skills through inquiry-based experiment design activities and open-ended investigations.
  • Explore the role of chemistry in everyday life through examples linked to scientific discoveries, healthcare, environmental challenges and industry.
  • Build confidence tackling complex problems with a structured approach that guides learners through analysis, planning, solution development and evaluation.
  • Strengthen understanding with practice opportunities designed to reinforce learning and address common misconceptions.
  • Visualise chemical processes and structures through molecular illustrations, models, graphs and multi-perspective graphics.
  • Check progress throughout the learning journey with end-of-section activities and self-assessment opportunities.
  • Master essential chemistry techniques with step-by-step guidance for key concepts, calculations and problem-solving methods.
  • Engage with contemporary developments and emerging applications that demonstrate chemistry's ongoing impact on society.
  • Benefit from enhanced visual explanations that help make complex concepts clearer and easier to interpret.

What You'll Learn

  • Understand the foundations of chemistry, including matter, energy, measurement, atoms, molecules and ions.
  • Analyse chemical reactions, stoichiometry and reactions in aqueous systems.
  • Apply the principles of thermochemistry, thermodynamics and chemical kinetics to explain chemical change.
  • Explore atomic structure, periodic trends, chemical bonding and molecular geometry.
  • Investigate the behaviour and properties of gases, liquids, solids and modern materials.
  • Evaluate solutions, chemical equilibrium and acid–base systems.
  • Examine environmental chemistry and the role of chemistry in addressing global challenges.
  • Understand electrochemistry, nuclear chemistry and the chemistry of nonmetals, transition metals and coordination compounds.
  • Develop a comprehensive understanding of organic chemistry, from hydrocarbons and stereochemistry to functional groups and aromatic compounds.
  • Apply spectroscopy and molecular structure analysis to investigate and identify chemical substances.

Who it's for

Ideal for students studying introductory two-semester general chemistry, including those preparing for further study in chemistry, biology, engineering, health sciences and other STEM disciplines.

Key features

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Table of contents

  1. Introduction: Matter, Energy, and Measurement
  2. Atoms, Molecules, and Ions
  3. Chemical Reactions and Reaction Stoichiometry
  4. Reactions in Aqueous Solution
  5. Thermochemistry
  6. Electronic Structure of Atoms
  7. Periodic Properties of the Elements
  8. Basic Concepts of Chemical Bonding
  9. Molecular Geometry and Bonding Theories
  10. Gases
  11. Liquids and Intermolecular Forces
  12. Solids and Modern Materials
  13. Properties of Solutions
  14. Chemical Kinetics
  15. Chemical Equilibrium
  16. Acid-Base Equilibria
  17. Additional Aspects of Aqueous Equilibria
  18. Chemistry of the Environment
  19. Chemical Thermodynamics
  20. Electrochemistry
  21. Nuclear Chemistry
  22. Chemistry of the Nonmetals
  23. Transition Metals and Coordination Chemistry
  24. The Chemistry of Organic Compounds
  25. Stereochemistry of Organic Compounds
  26. Chemistry of Alkenes and Alkynes
  27. Alcohols, Haloalkanes, and Ethers
  28. Aldehydes, Ketones, and Carbohydrates
  29. Carboxylic Acids and their Derivatives
  30. Benzene and its Derivatives
  31. Nitrogen-Containing Organic Compounds
  32. Solving Molecular Structure

Author bios

THEODORE L. BROWN received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 1956. Since then, he has been a member of the faculty of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he is now Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus. He served as Vice Chancellor for Research, and Dean of The Graduate College, from 1980 to 1986, and as Founding Director of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology from 1987 to 1993. Professor Brown has been an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellow and has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1972 he was awarded the American Chemical Society Award for Research in Inorganic Chemistry and received the American Chemical Society Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Inorganic Chemistry in 1993. He has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Chemical Society.

H. EUGENE LEMAY, JR., received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from Pacific Lutheran University (Washington) and his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1966 from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He then joined the faculty of the University of Nevada, Reno, where he is currently Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus. He has enjoyed Visiting Professorships at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, at the University College of Wales in Great Britain, and at the University of California, Los Angeles. Professor LeMay is a popular and effective teacher, who has taught thousands of students during more than 40 years of university teaching. Known for the clarity of his lectures and his sense of humor, he has received several teaching awards, including the University Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award (1991) and the first Regents' Teaching Award given by the State of Nevada Board of Regents (1997).

BRUCE E. BURSTEN received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin in 1978. After two years as a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at Texas A&M University, he joined the faculty of The Ohio State University, where he rose to the rank of Distinguished University Professor. In 2005, he moved to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, as Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Professor Bursten has been a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholar and an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellow, and he is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society. At Ohio State he has received the University Distinguished Teaching Award in 1982and 1996, the Arts and Sciences Student Council Outstanding Teaching Award in 1984,and the University Distinguished Scholar Award in 1990. He received the Spiers Memorial Prize and Medal of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2003, and the Morley Medal of the Cleveland Section of the American Chemical Society in 2005. He was President of the American Chemical Society for 2008. In addition to his teaching and service activities, Professor Bursten's research program focuses on compounds of the transition-metal and actinide elements.

CATHERINE J. MURPHY received two B.S. degrees, one in Chemistry and one in Biochemistry, from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1986. She received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin in1990. She was a National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology from 1990 to 1993. In 1993, she joined the faculty of the University of South Carolina, Columbia, becoming the Guy F. Lipscomb Professor of Chemistry in 2003. In 2009 she moved to the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, as the Peter C. and Gretchen Miller Markun as Professor of Chemistry. Professor Murphy has been honored for both research and teaching as a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellow, a Cottrell Scholar of the Research Corporation, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award winner, and a subsequent NSF Award for Special Creativity. She has also received a USC Mortar Board Excellence in Teaching Award, the USC Golden Key Faculty Award for Creative Integration of Research and Undergraduate Teaching, the USC Michael J. Mungo Undergraduate Teaching Award, and the USC Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor Award. Since 2006, Professor Murphy has served as a Senior Editor for the Journal of Physical Chemistry. In 2008 she was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Professor Murphy's research program focuses on the synthesis and optical properties of inorganic nanomaterials, and on the local structure and dynamics of the DNA double helix.

PATRICK M. WOODWARD received B.S. degrees in both Chemistry and Engineering from Idaho State University in 1991. He received a M.S. degree in Materials Science and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Oregon State University in 1996. He spent two years as a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Physics at Brookhaven National Laboratory. In1998, he joined the faculty of the Chemistry Department at The Ohio State University where he currently holds the rank of Professor. He has enjoyed visiting professorship sat the University of Bordeaux in France and the University of Sydney in Australia. Professor Woodward has been an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellow and a National Science Foundation CAREER Award winner. He currently serves as an Associate Editor to the Journal of Solid State Chemistry and as the director of the Ohio REEL program, an NSF-funded center that works to bring authentic research experiments into the laboratories of first- and second-year chemistry classes in 15 colleges and universities across the state of Ohio. Professor Woodward's research program focuses on understanding the links between bonding, structure, and properties of solid-state inorganic functional materials.

MATTHEW W. STOLTZFUS received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from Millersville University in 2002 and his Ph. D. in Chemistry in2007from The Ohio State University. He spent two years as a teaching postdoctoral assistant for the Ohio REEL program, an NSF-funded center that works to bring authentic research experiments into the general chemistry lab curriculum in 15 colleges and universities across the state of Ohio. In 2009, he joined the faculty of Ohio State where he currently holds the position of Chemistry Lecturer. In addition to lecturing general chemistry, Stoltzfus accepted the Faculty Fellow position for the Digital First Initiative, inspiring instructors to offer engaging digital learning content to students through emerging technology. Through this initiative, he developed an iTunesU general chemistry course, which has attracted over 120,000 students from all over the world. Stoltzfus has received several teaching awards, including the inaugural Ohio State University2013 Provost's Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Lecturer and he is recognised as an Apple Distinguished Educator.

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