A collection of cleaning and etching solutions extracted from the open technical literature from about 1940 to the present, covering all major metal elements, and the majority of metallic compounds currently involved in the high technology fields. At least one solution is presented for all major metals and metallic compounds in current use and/or under development, for immediate application or as a "starting place" for further specific solution development. Crystal structure is emphasized throughout, as much of chemical processing is directly related to the crystal structure of the materials in both general study and device fabrication. A knowledge of bulk crystal plane directions, for example, is essential in the structuring of many specific microelectronic devices.