The Basic Inorganic Chemistry by F. Albert Cotton, Geoffrey Wilkinson, and Paul L. Gaus is the ultimate educational textbook of inorganic chemistry worldwide. Teachers and students have found in it an excellent reference book, a text that could easily be characterized as a classic in its field.

The book presents in a systematic and lively manner the basic elements and principles of inorganic chemistry, with a main emphasis on experimental data. The chemistry of elements and their compounds is organized into groups of compounds and types of reactions, while the periodicity in structure and activity is emphasized.

This 3rd edition (1st Greek) includes significant additions and improvements to the original text: a more comprehensive introduction to inorganic chemistry, improved treatment of atomic orbitals and various properties (such as electronegativity), new approaches to the representation of ionic structures, nomenclature for transition metal compounds, quantitative approaches to acid-base chemistry, extensive and unified treatment of periodicity in the structure and activity of main group elements, Wade's rules for boranes and carboranes, chemistry of new important categories of substances (such as fullerenes and silenes), and a new chapter on inorganic solid state. Material on symmetry elements and point groups, as well as on symmetry operations, has been added in an appendix, and the glossary has been updated.

The present Basic Inorganic Chemistry is the textbook that has initiated and educated millions of students in the natural sciences around the world.