Books
"Active" speciation
Element Speciation in Bioinorganic Chemistry S. Caroli, Ed. John Wiley & Sons 605 Third Ave. New York, NY 10158 1996, 474 pp.. $95
other chapters cover chromium and selenium, arsenic, milk, and aluminum and silicon; and technique-based chapters focus on neutron activation, "new methods", nonchromatographic methods, and quality control. Why is chromium discussed with selenium in one chapter? Well, the methods applied to these two elements are not particularly successful for either, so there is some relationship—but that is a cynic's view. On the whole, the book is well-written and thoroughly referenced. The blurb on the back of the book stating that it is "a
The book contains an excellent chapter on electrochemical methods.
Knowing more about sensors
Handbook of Chemical and Biological Sensors Richard F. Taylor and Jerome S. Schultz, Eds. Institute of Physics Publishing 150 South Independence Mall West Suite 1035 Philadelphia, PA 19106 1996, 603 pp., $279
The word "speciation" can be used in an active sense (i.e., the work of an analytical chemist who is speciating a sample) or a passive one (i.e., the chemical species in which an element occurs). This book deals mostly with the active sense: It is Interest in developing miniature chemical about methods. The field of speciation has and biochemical sensors has been continudiversified and, because of the generally ally growing for at least the past 20 years. complicated techniques, investigators Sensor development can be broken down tend to become specialized in narrow into two areas: achieving selective recogniareas. This book has chapters by welltion of a target analyte and transducing the known authors on such narrow areas. Of recognition event into an electronic signal. the authors and coauthors 16 are Italian As a "handbook", mis volume seeks to comand 13 are non-Italian, suggesting that prehensively cover developments, achievecomplete reference" is misleading beauthor selection had a slight geographic ments, and applications in both areas. Alcause several major topics are not disbias One drawback of this bias is a tenthough this book is written by authors with cussed—for example, speciation of ordency toward convoluted sentence conexpertise in covering the entire field, the ganic compounds, ligand competition structions in some chapters editors have maintained enough editorial with either CSV or AAS, and molecular control so that the reader is presented with techniques. Each chapter has its own reference list a reasonably well ordered development of with typically 100-200 references. I'd like to The book is a useful reference for the theory and applications. The editors aimed give a star to an excellent chapter on electopics discussed—and even for some not to provide coverage for readers working in trochemical methods that has 290 referdiscussed but mentioned in passing. It is engineering chemistry and the biological ences. This chapter is the largest, which suitable for postgraduates and anyone naturally touches the heart of electrochemnew to some of these areas. However, this sciences; however not all chapters may interest everyone , ists, and is authoritatively written. A second book is not thefinalword on speciation, electrochemical chapter is dedicated to and more publications are expected in this Chapters 2-5 focus on the mechaASV of lead but also gives a detailed discus- developing field. nisms of sensor transduction and consion of the theory of speciation in seawater. struction, particularly integrated-circuit Reviewed by Stanvanden Berg, UniverTwo chapters cover organotin speciation; fabrication methods. Chapter 2 describes sity of Liverpool (U.K.) 304 A
Analytical Chemistry News & Features, May 1, 1997
physical sensors but is useful for understanding chemical sensor transduction discussed in later chapters. Some transduction methods are not covered in the early chapters but are described in the second section of the book, which primarily deals with examples and applications. Thus, readers who do not read this book cover to cover or who do not closely read the table of contents may not gain a good overview of the entire field. All of the significant transduction techniques are covered, including optical, electrochemical, piezoelectric mass detection, and calorimetric methods. In all cases, the authors do a good job of covering the basic theory of the transduction mechanisms. References are provided for those wanting to obtain more detailed information. The later chapters in the first section of the book describe chemical and biological methods of analyte recognition and how it can be linked to transduction. The supporting topics of microfluidics and sensor calibration are also included. The calibration chapter is particularly informative because of its discussion of zero-, first-, and secondorder sensor systems. The analyterecognition descriptions provide a comprehensive overview but do not include in-depth coverage of any particular area. Again, ,eferences point the reader to greater detail. The final chapters describe current and potential applications for chemical and biochemical sensors, and numerous examples illustrate the various combinations of sensor recognition and transduction. Some material that appears in earlier chapters is repeated, but this redundancy highlights important areas and does not detract from the work. One chapter discusses potential markets for commercial sensors—a topic not often covered in scientific books. If it is safe to assume that many readers of this book will be working for commercial interests then the discussion of markets sppms
quite appropriate.
As in most cases, even a book striving Handbook of Capillary for comprehensive coverage leaves out a Electrophoresis few relevant topics. More discussion on James P. Landers, Ed. the development of polymer coatings by 2nd ed. using chromatography partition coeffiCRC Press cient data and solvation energy theory 2000 Corporate Blvd., NW would be useful. Coverage of miniaturized Boca Raton, FL 33431-9868 separation devices, such as CE columns 1997, 894 pp.. $135 on a small substrate, would complement the chapters on FIA and microfluidics. This book covers CE, micellar electrokiThese devices could possibly play an imnetic chromatography, CE separation of portant role in the development of second- enantiomers, capillary isoelectric focusing, order sensor systems. and capillary electrochromatography. FolOverall, the coverage in this handbook lowing five introductory chapters on CE is quite good and is suitable for those who modes, the book is divided into sections on analytes, applications, and specialized ashave a limited background in chemical pects (capillary surface modification, conand biochemical sensors but who wish to trolling electroosmotic flow, rectangular know more about sensor operation and potential. Experts in the field will find it to channels, LC/CE, CE/MS, microfabricated devices, and fraction collection). Three apbe a useful, condensed source of referpendixes cover calculations troubleshootences and basic information. ing, and separation conditions. A subject Reviewed by Glenn J. Bastiaans, Special Technologies Laboratory, Bechtel Nevadaindex is included. Vibrational Intensities BOOKS RECEIVED Environmental Biomonitoring: Exposure Assessment and Specimen Banking K. S. Subramanian and G. V. Iyengar, Eds. American Chemical Society 1155 16th St., NW Washington, DC 20036 1997, 288 pp., $99.95
This book presents material from the December 1995 symposium "Environmental Biomonitoring and Specimen Banking" held at Pacifichem. It contains an overview chapter, eight chapters on monitoring, six chapters on exposure assessment, four chapters on biomarkers, and five chapters on specimen banking. Most of the references are from the 1990s. Author, affiliation, and subject indexes are included.
Boris S. Galabov and Todor Dudev, Eds. Elsevier Science P.O. Box 945 New York, NY 10160 1996, 323 pp., $240
The 10 chapters in this book cover IRradiation absorption by molecules, vibrational analysis coordinates, semiclassical models of IR intensities, molecular dipole moment derivatives as IR-intensity parameters, relationships between IR intensity formulations, parametric formulations of IR-absorption intensities of overtone and combination bands, ab initio MO calculations of IR intensities, Raman spectroscopy intensities, parametric models for interpreting Raman intensities, and ab initio calculations of Raman intensities. The book contains more than 350 references from the 1970s and 1980s. Author and subject indexes are included.
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