Chemical Education Today
book & media reviews Chemistry Under Extreme or Non-Classical Conditions Rudi von Eldik and Colin D. Hubbard, Eds. John Wiley: New York, 1997. xii + 555 pp. Figs. and tables. 23.3 × 15.5 cm. $99. Twelve teams or individuals contributed to this book: J. J. Schneider, “Chemical Synthesis Using High Temperature Species” (52 pp, 107 refs); C. D. Hubbard and R. van Eldik, “Effect of Pressure on Inorganic Reactions” (50 pp, 205 refs); F. G. Klarner, M. K. Diedrich, and A. E. Wigger (60 pp, 146 refs); J. Jurczak and D. T. Gryko, “Organic Synthesis at High Pressure” (26 pp, 66 refs); “Inorganic and Related Chemical Reactions in Supercritical Fluids” (30 pp, 77) refs; E. Dinjus, R. Fornika, and M. Scholz, “Organic Chemistry in Supercritical Fluids” (54 pp, 192 refs); H. Schmieder, N. Dahmen, J. Schon, and G. Wiegand (44 pp, 197 refs); T. J. Mason and J. L. Luche, “Ultrasound as a New Tool for Synthetic Chemists” (64 pp, 230 refs); G. J. Price, “Applications of High Intensity Ultrasound in Polymer Chemistry (48 pp, 169 refs); M. R. Hoffman, L. Hua, R. Hochemer, D. Willberg, P. Lang, and A. Kratel (50 pp, 146 refs); D. M. P. Mingos and A. G. Whittaker, “Microwave Dielectric Heating Effects in Chemical Synthesis” (36 pp, 102 refs); K. Heremans, “Biomolecules Under Extreme Conditions” (30 pp, 74 refs). It is indeed an unusually well-referenced book (some entries have as many as 20 citations). The writing is clear and remarkably uniform; one could easily imagine that the entire book had been edited or even written by a single person. The figures and structures have been carefully drawn; this book deserves high marks for appearances. Nor is it unusually expensive at $99. While all of the topics have been reviewed separately or in small groups, having them together in a single volume was a good idea. No one is likely to read the book from cover to cover, but anyone who is looking for one chapter and inclined to browse may well find additional material to spike his/her interest. I did not know very much about the cluster chemis-
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try described by Schneider, the sonochemistry by Mason and Luche, or the microwave applications by Mingos and Whittaker, and found it fascinating reading. It left me wondering, in fact, why some additional possible topics had not been included. Thus there is much interest in chemistry at extremely low pressures such as prevail in the upper atmosphere and interstellar space, in chemistry at extremely low temperatures such as one encounters in inert gas solid matrices, in chemistry in superacid media, in chemistry induced by ionizing radiation, etc. Perhaps such topics might be added in a follow-up volume at some future date. There are also a few topics that are included more than once. High pressure and supercritical media are treated three times each. The individual chapters describe different areas of chemistry, but the authors all feel the need to start off with the fundamentals. This has resulted in some duplication and even an occasional contradiction (e.g., Chapter 6: “Supercritical fluids…are often extremely good solvents…”; Chapter 5: “Sadly, supercritical scientists often manage to create the impression that supercritical fluids are “wonder solvents” with almost magical powers …”). But these are the findings of minor faults. Hubbard and van Eldik are capable and enthusiastic scientists, and they obviously recruited a team of coauthors who share their approach and ability. Klarner, Jurczak, Mason and Mingos all wrote delightful chapters in this vein, as did the others. I enjoyed leafing through the book and reading long stretches, from Schneider’s “high temperature synthesis techniques, for which no classical synthesis counterpart exists” to Heremans’ “Bridgmanization”, which he poses as a possible future counterpoint to “Pasteurization” in biotechnology. This book belongs in all chemistry libraries, and in not a few private collections as well.
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 74 No. 7 July 1997
William J. le Noble State University of New York Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794-3400
