Chapters are included on application of diffraction, fluores- have ready access to this and the earlier volumes of “.idccrice and absorption for purposes of chemical analysis. vances in Catalysis.” Itiformation to be gained in the study of deformation and BCREAUOF MIXES,REGIONV stress measurement is described. DIVISIONO F SOLID FUELS TECHNOLOGY The book is well illustrated and well written. I t will be L. J . E. HOFER BRANCH OF COAL-TO-OIL RESEARCH found very useful by students of X-ray diffraction. BRKJCETOX, PA. DEPARTMEKT O F CHEMISTRY I‘UIVERSITYOF WASHINGTOS S.IT;. GREGORY SEATTLE. TT~ASHISGTON Progress in Nuclear Energy. Series 111. Volume I. Process Chemistry. BY F. R . BRUCE,Oak Ridge National Laboratory, J. If. FLETCHER, A.E.R.E., Harwell, H. H. HYMAN,and J. J . KATZ,Argonne National Laboratory, Editors. 1ClcGraw-Hill Book ComDanv. Inc.. 330 West 407 pp. Advances in Catalysis and Related Subjects. S-olunic 42nd Street, Kew York 36, N. Y. j956.’ xii T‘III. Edited by 1%’. S. FRAEKENBURG, Lancaster, 16 X 23.5 cm. Price, $12.00. Peniis:-lvania; \-. I. KOMAREIVSKY, Chicago, Illinois; Chemists and chemical engineers should find this volume m d E . K. RIDEAL,London, England. Academic Press, Inc., Publishers, 111 Fifth Avenue, New York 3, K, Y . , an extremely informative account of the accomplishments in chemical technology attained by various individuals and 1956. viii 363 pp. 16 X 23 cm. Price $10.00, laboratories working in the atomic energy field. This book is another distinguished volume in a series T o date, both professional people and the public have been treated to numerous popularized accounts of reactor designs already known for its reliability and usefulness. Recognized authorities have w i t t e n each of the seven chapters: 1. and applications, while the equally fascinating aspects of “Current Problems of Heterogeneous Catalysis,” by J. chemical reprocessing have been dealt with only occasionally. Arvid Hedvall, contains a survey of the fields in catalysis I t is understandable that this situation should prevail, which a t present show promise of yielding important new since the focal point for any reactor power cycle is the “reactor .” MThen reactors are employed t o produce fissile developments. Attention is directed t o defect structures, ferromagneti? and ferroelectric Curie points, crystalline materials, chemical processing is a required step in the proctransitions in catalyst phases, photoadsorption, etc. ess. The future role of reprocessing in a power generation 2 . “Adsorption Phenomena,” by J. H . DeBoer, comprises cycle is not a t all clear a t the moment, since metallurgists, 3 pages and is the major chapter of the present volume. physicists and reactor engineers will set their sights on a i e article, indicating that there is no clear line of demarca- degree of fuel burnout that will allow ashes to be “shoveled tion between physical and chemical adsorption, covers the out” of the reactor periodically without the need for retheory of both, in as quantitative a manner as present knowlprocessing. Many reactor engineers will agree that vastly edge will permit. A bibliography of 407 entries provides an improved chemical reprocessing techniques could influence excellent introduction to the periodical literature. 3. “*4cti- the choice of the best power reactor cycle. For many applivation of Molecular Hydrogen by Homogeneous Catalysts,” cations, a cheap and effective chemical process could obviate by S.W. Weller and S. A. Mills, is a detailed critical analysis the need for expensive high-integrity fuel or costly reactor i)f the mechanisms by which hydrogen dissociates and design features required to assure prolonged operation withbecomes available for reaction in s p t e m s of (a) cuprous out refueling. As reactor engineers, physicists and metald t s in quinoline, ( b ) cuprous and silver salts in pyridine lurgists gain knowledge on the problems of high burn-up and dodecylamine, (c) cupric and mercuric salts in aqueous reactor operation, and chemists and engineers continue their iolution, ( d ) ethylene-platinous chloride, ( e ) cobalt car- advance toward more economical reprocessing methods, we may well see a more effective integration of the reactor lionyl, ( f ) certain bases of miscellaneous composition. This atudy is directed toward the elucidation of the mechanism of and separations technologies in future reactor power cycles. activation of hydrogen as it proceeds on heterogeneous Process Chemistry should provide an excellent educational catalysts. 4. “Catalytic Synthesis of Ketones,” by V . I . review and background for those who simply want to keep Komarewsby and J. R . Coley, emphasizes the aldol and abreast of developments and for those who now may be Tishchenko ester condensations as methods of synthesizing actively involved in power reactor engineering and economics. The volume is neither a textbook nor a handbook. I t is a ketones in contrast to the better known and more widely ubed dehydrogenation of secondary alcohols and decarboxylblend of both chemistry and engineering as applied to chemical processing of irradiated fissionable materials. The ation condensations. 5 . “Polymerization of Olefins from Cracked Gases,” by Edwin K . Jones, is a summary of scope of treatment includes laboratory, pilot-plant, arid fullmodern industrial practice in catalytic polymerization scale activities for both research- and development-type ( J f olefins. I t covers such subjects as process variables, experimentation. The volunie contains 22 papers presented catalysts, catalyst poisons, feed stocks and ,,producti. by English and -1merican scientists and specialists a t the t i . “Coal-Hydrogenation T’apor-Phase Catalysts, by E . E. Xugust. 1955, International Conference for the Peaceful Ilonath, describes the development of catalysts based on Cses of Atomic Energy a t Geneva. Many of these have been tnolybderium, tungsten and nickel in Germany and else- updated and appropriately modified. In addition, 14 papers xvhere for the hydrogenation of tars, heavy oil, and middle have been added by the editors to provide a balanced treatoil produced by the action of hydrogen on coal. 7. “The ment of the subject and to include some of the more adKinetics of the Cracking of Cuniene by Silica-Alumina vanced concepts that were not included a t the “Geneva” Catalysts,” by Charles D. Prater and Rudolph M. Lago, meeting. Thirteen of the papcrs are by English authors i.; a detailed analysis of published kinetic data on the and the volume is a result of joint editorship of U.S. and cracking of cumene, combined with additional experimental U .K. scientists together with an editorial advisory board data and a dcterinination of the true kinetics a t the active that is composed of specialists from many other countries sites. involved in the peacetime applications of atomic energy. Catalytic chemistry is a broad and )-et poorly understood Broadly, the volume describes chemical processes for the field of science. Contributions t o this field come from such purification of uranium and thorium ores, the separation of Tvidely different fields as clieniical kinetics, thermodynamics, the fissile materials following irradiation of uranium and photochemistry, magnetism, crystallography, solid state thorium fuel elements, and the disposal and/or recovery of the waste fission products. The papers leave no doubt that physics, chemical engineering, aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, atomic physics, quantum mechanics, various types of at present, solvent extraction is a m-ell-demonstrated unit sI)ectroscopy, organic chemistry, tracer chemistry and operation for separating and decontaminating the key surface chemistry. Recent theoretical and experimental products of irradiation. Readers should be impressed by the (li~velopinentsin thcse sciences have stimulated the science versatility and flexibility of this technique and will prohabl!T $ I F catalysis to rapid growth. The present volume of conclude that additional applications should be possible in areas of activity other than those in the nuclear field. I t “.\dvsnccs in Catalysis” together with its predecessors 1)rovides an indispensable focus where new developments would be reasonable t o expect that many of the chemical arid techniques as they apply to catalysis are summarized principles and unit operations discussed might be applied : i ~ i di:i-itic;iIly evalri:ried. T h e tw-elve pages of subject and effectively to isolate arid produce estrerricly pure r~rnterials l l l i t l l l J I ~itides aid j i i iiiabriiig tliih Imok L: iiseful reference for ipecialty use. 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