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BOOK
REVIEWS
General Chemistry Labomtory Operations
Lawrence E. Conroy and R. Stuart Tobias, both of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Maemillan Co., 191 pp. New York, 1965. viii Figs. and tables. 21.5 X 28 cm. Paperbound. 83.50.
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This laboratory manual consists of three sections: iutradoet,ory material, twentyone experiments, and five tables. The format for the experiments includes a n introduction in whieh the nature and theoretical aspects of the experiment are generally briefly discussed; directions for the laborat,ory work with, in some cases, instructions for the calculstions required; laboratory report sheets; and, several questions pertaining to some aspect of the experiment or a. similar one. The experiments generally ~ a n s i s tof two parts. I n the first part, det,ailed laboratory operations are used to obtain data. whieh are known to the student. The primary and secondary data required are specified on the report sheet. In t,he second part, the students are expected to apply the operation t o a quantit,ative measurement of an unknown. Usually no directions are given and no indication is made of the data to he collected. The directions far the laboratory operations and for processing data. decrease in suecesive experiments reaching a minimwn in the later experiments.
-Reviewed
The manual is in t,he form of a spiral notebook from whioh completed report sheets can be removed b y the student. The illustrations m e clearly drawn and labeled. The directions and explanations are written in a clear, simple style. The equipment required to do the experiments is essentially that associated with a course in quantitative analysis. The number of solutions to be used seems to be reasonable. Sixteen af the experiments involve unknowns whieh could require considerable preparation time. A number of experiments involving traditional subjects appear in the manual such as mass-volume measurements, reduction of oxides, and atomic weight, equivalent weight, and malal volume determinations. However, these experiments are differentin t h s t the students are to be assigned a substance to be identified. Some of the more outstanding experiments include t,he following: A mixture of BaC1a,2Hz0 is analyzed by findBaCL ing the percent water and percent barium present. Data, are collected from which the origin and nature of a. titration curve are established. Seven different studies are given involving enthalpies of reaction. The soh~b'ilityproduct of potassium hydrogen tartrate and t,he mean activity coefficients are calculated from solubility data. An electrochemicd study provides data that are used to compare E with E o , The study of the reaction of hydrogen peroxide with iodide ion l a d s t o the rate law for the reaction. The equilibrium
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in this Issue
Lawrence E. Cvnroy and R. Stuart Tobias, General Chemistry Laboratory Operations
N . L. Paw, editor, Laboratory Handbook Linus Pauling and Roger Hayward, The Architecture of Molecules Alfred J . Moses, Nuclear Techniques in Analytical Chemistry Leon F. Phillips, Basic Quantum Chemistry
S. Coffey,editor, Rodd's Chemistry of Carbon Compoundn. Volume 1, Part B Saul Patai, editor, The Chemistry of Alkenes S. M. Perel'man, Rubidium and Caesium William G. Moffat,George W . Pearsall, and John Wulff, The Structure and Properties of Materials. Volume 1, Structure Henry M . Leicester, The Historical Background of Chemistry Marcel Pourbaiz, Atlas d'kquilibres Plectrochimiques 9, 25'C
A. C . Rose-Innes, Low Temperature Techniques: The Use of Liquid Helium in the Laboratory New Vo'olums in Continuing Series
578 / Journol of Chemical Education
eonstsnt is found for 1 2 1- e Ig-. The descriptive chemistry of the oxides of the group five elements and of nine anions is developed and used for two qoalilative analysis exercises. The authors have written a laboratory manual containing quantitative experiments that emphasize chemical concepts. At the same time, they have given a d e quate attention to acceptable laboratory operations and to the processing, analysis, and interpretation of data. The authors suggest that the m a n t d in written to be appropriate for all students in s, genela1 chemistry course in which basic chemical concepts are st,ressed. Although there are only twenty-one experiments, the nature of each is such that there is ample laborat,ory work for two semesters. The potential of the manual would be enhanced by including experiments involving instrumentation and by giving appropriate references for the experiments.
H. A. N~rorG Lebanon Valley College Annville, Pennsylvania
Laboratory Handbook
Edited by N. L. Paw. D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc., Princeton, New Jersey, 1965. xi 1523 pp. Figs. and tables. 14.5 X 22 cm. 837.50.
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Containing contributions by 47 British authorities (of whom less than 15% are from academic institutions) the "Laboratory Handbook" has been "designed both to help those workers who are already engaged in a psrticolar field and to guide the student a t the beginning of a career in lahora*tory work." Though fint published in the US. in 1965, it has been previously published in 1963 in Great Britain, and upon careful inspection it appears t h s t most references are prior to 1961. Furthermore, its value to American users is diminished by the fact that whenever mention is made of particular laboratory apparatus, it is of British msnufacture. Therefore this hook probably fulfills better the second rather than the first part of its somewhat modest but compromising goals. For satisfaction of the first intention it would be perhaps better to rely on the volumes in the series edited by Ruth Lang, "Laboratory and Workshop Notes," which consists of selected articles from those published regularly in the Journal of Scientific Instruments. Essentially, "Laboratory Handbook" is a collection of expository chapters accompanied by appropriate, though not necessarily critical, references to t h e periodical literature as well as to books devoted to particular techniques such as glassblowing, vacnum techniques, temperature measurement, etc. Very little of the material is presented in the format of tables, the latter being so characteristic of many, though surely not all, handbooks. Therefore it more nearly resembles in format handbooks such ss the "American Institute of Physics Handbook" and t h e "Biochemists' Handbook" than the
"Handbook of Chemistry and Physics," Lange's "Handbook of Chemistry" or Meites' "Handbook of Anslytical Chemistry." The first 24 pages, being Part 1, are devoted to a discussion of laboratory design, organization, and administration; subsequently follow chaptern devoted to glsssblowing, mechanical and electrical workshop techniques, electronic engineering, and ovens and furnaces in Part 2. Part 3, The Technique of Measurement, contains 7 chapters pertaining to topics such as electrical measurement,s, temperature measurements, optics, and physical chemistry in whieh latter is discussed NMR, polarography, mass and emission spectrometry, and X-ray fluorescence, Physical Chemistry also appears in Part 5, Basic and Special Techniques. Here it includes thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, and molecular structure, all within 5 pages so that it is understandable why in Part 7, Chemical Analysis, there is a chapter on Physiochemical Analysis in whieh there is again consideration of spectroscopy, polsragraphy, X-ray methods and radiochemist,ry. I n an expository format this lack of continuity can be somewhat discouraging a t times. Part 7 also contains chapters on chromatography. I n general, the expository chapters do not comparein quality with those found in Weissberger's "Technique of Organic Chemistry" or Berl's "Physical Methods in Chemical Analysis" even when allawance is made for the disparity in sise between s. mdti-volume series and a. single volume. Seventeen chapters are devoted to teehniques in specialized laboratories such 6s pharmaceutical, metallurgical, and aerodynmnicd. The concluding chapters pertain to laboratory hazards and precautions, and the reporting and publication of scientific information. Due to its limited utility and because it really neither sopplements nor supplants readily available books, i t ia probably unlikely to be purchased by individuals and even by institutions whose libraries are already adequately maintained in this field.
JAMES A. GOWMIN Po'ytechnie Institute of Brooklyn B+-ooklyn, New York
The Architecture of Molecules
Linus Pauling, Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, Santa Barbma, Californb, and Roger Hayward. W. H. Freeman and Co., San Francisco, 1964. x 117 pp. Figs. and tables. 19.5 X 26 em. $10.
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The title is well chosen. This is more than a hook about molecular structure. The form and beauty, the aesthet,ic appeal of the mrtcroscopie symmetry or the subtle microscopic asymmetry of matter a t the molecular level leap out from every page. Some may see this volume as a Pauling autobiography, if it is conceivable that one book can convey the imprwsion of s. csreer whieh has illuminated chemistry
from the hydrogen atom to chlorotetraeycline. Roger Hayward's 57 color plates are a perfect medium far such a n effort. Their sheer beauty never sacrifices precision of dimension or orientation. Psuling's page of text accompanying each plate is similarly that of an artist with words. The layman can take with confidence each step toward underst,anding the significance of moleculsr stnrcture to life. At the same time, even the sophisticated chemist probably will get some new insight into how meaningful it can be to translate modern bond distances and angles into the langosge of the plrttonic solids. This book belongs in many places. Certainly it, should be on the shelves of required reading for courses designed for non-science majors. Many chemists will find it just the thing for den or living room where occasionally they get asked "Just what is chemistry all about?" The authors planned i t for "young people who are beginning to develop an interwt in science." True enough, but all chemists should feel young again and "beginning" never ends. Go boy the book! I n fact, you may have trouble holding onto a eopy-buy several.
bromine and iodine in organic halogen compounds. Several exsmples show how conventional analyticd chemical separations mey be combined with activation analysis to determine many ronstituents of a complex sample. A flow sheet is presented to show how 13 elements may be determined in one sample with one irradiation followed b y chemical separations prior t o radiochemical counting. Examples are given of the application of a c t i v e tion analpis to problem in the petroleum industrv. in the semi-conductor industrv. tion. Thirt,een pages of thermal and fast neutron activation data are given in the appendix, whieh will assist a reader t o determine the sensitivity of the met,had for solving an analytical problem he may be considering. A chapter on positive ion and gamma ray &divation analysis briefly derrcribes these techniques, and includes tables of d a b to show their sensitivity for determining selected elements. Other chapters cover radiation scattering and absorption, isotope dilution analysis, tracer analytical techniques, radiometric measurements and exchange reactions. Geo- and Casmochronology and Miscellaneous Nuclear Techniques is the title of the last chapter which, in four pages, wraps up this brief survey of '*Nuclear Techniques in Analytical Chemistry."
EDW.&RD N. WISE University of Arizona Tuwm
Nuclear Techniques in Analytical Chemistry
Alfwd J . Moses, Atomics International, CanogaPark, California. International Series of Monographs on Anslytical Chemistry, Volume 20. Pergamon Press, Ine., Long Island City, New York, 1964. vii 142 pp. Figs. and tables. 14.5 X 22.5 em. $6.50.
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This is a small book, 5'/1 X 8'/2 in., a short book, 110 pages of text, and it covers an enormous field of subject matter. It is definitely not a book for the student who wishes t o know the how and why of the topics discussed, for explanations are very brief. Nor is it a book for practicing radiachemists, for t,he topics are treated superficially. It is a book that will s p p e d to the practicing analytical chemist who wants t o know what, modern techniques can do, what kind of problems can be solved by these techniques, and what modern nuclear laboratory apparatus looks like. Each of the ten chapters has a. generous list of references, to whieh the reader ie referred from the text for additional information. All topics are treated with a brevity that is reminiscent of a journal review article, but the reader is exposed to many nuclear techniques in a very few pages and, if he is interested enough to want more information, he can consult the references provided. Many examples of practical ddeterminations are given, such as the use of neutron activation snalysis in determining copper, silver and gold in ancient coins; phosphorous in beetle winga; sntimony, barium and copper in gunpowder stains removed from a suspect's hand; and Volume
Basic Quantum Chemistry
L e a F . Phillips, University of Canterbury, Christehureh, New Zealand. John Wiley and Sons, Inr., New York, 1065. xi 178 pp. Figs. and tables. 14 X 21 em. Clothbound, $5.50; pzperbound. $3.95.
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The present volume is the second in a paperback series on special topic8 in chemistry. The announced purpose of the new series is to present to undergraduates subject areas which are usually covered a t the graduate level and clarify "problem" areas which give trouble to students. The previously published "Symmetry in Chemistry" by H. H. Jaff6 and M . Orchin was a splendid beginning for what portends t o be a quite worthwhile series of books for undergraduates (and othera). The book has evolved from the notes on a course which is intended for fourth year chemistry students. As the author indicates in the preface, tenaciby rather than mathematical ability is essential for obtaining the most from a study of t h e contents. The book contains chapters on Formal Quantum Theory, Solutions of t h e Schroedinger Equation far Some Simple Systems, Approximate Methods: Variation Principle and Perturbation Theory, The Use of Symmetry Properties and Group Theory, Hiiekel Molecular Orbital Theory and Applications to Organic
42, Number 10, Odober 1965
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