Perspectives in Organometallic Chemistry Edited. By C. G. Screttas and B. R. Steele (National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens). Royal Society of Chemistry: Cambridge. 2003. x + 322 pp. $199.00. ISBN 0-85404-876-6. This book features the proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Organometallic Chemistry held in Corfu, Greece, in July 2002 and presents an overview of recent developments in the field. Its 24 chapters include coverage of such topics as the synthesis of main group, transition metal, and lanthanide organometallics; applications to homogeneous catalysis; structural and theoretical studies; and enantioselective processes. A subject index completes the book. JA033568R 10.1021/ja033568r
Relativistic Electronic Structure Theory: Part 1, Fundamentals. Edited by Peter Schwerdtfeger (University of Auckland). Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, Volume 11. Series Edited by P. Politzer (University of New Orleans) and Z. B. Maksic (Rudjer Boskovic Institute). Elsevier Science B. V.: Amsterdam. 2002. xx + 926 pp. $340.00. ISBN 0-444-51249-7. In the 1970s, there was an upsurge in interest in the effects of relativity in chemistry and related fields where the Schro¨dinger equation had reigned supreme for 50 years. At the heart of the development were advances in relativistic electronic structure theory. This volume stems from a conference in June, 2001, to honor Pekka Pyykko¨ (University of Helsinki) for his early and continuing contributions to this field. A second volume is expected to focus on applications of this theory. The present volume contains 15 contributed chapters, written by physicists, chemists, and mathematicians. The fonts and formats of the chapters vary a bit, but all are quite readable, and the density of typos is low. The fundamental equation in this field, the Dirac equation (1928), brought with it complications in addition to those present in the already-difficult Schro¨dinger equation, for example, fourcomponent wave functions versus one- or two-components, interpretation of positronic components and energies, etc. In fact, substantial progress with the Schro¨dinger equation in the 1960s, due to the availability of increasingly powerful computers, was one of the motivations for starting the relativistic work. Remarks Unsigned book reviews are by the Book Review Editor.
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by Dirac and others, with varying amounts of foresight, concerning the extent of applicability of relativity to fields dealing with atoms, molecules, and solids are quoted and discussed at length in the preface and several chapters. Generalizing from one to many electrons is more complicated using the Dirac equation than with the Schro¨dinger equation, and this is covered by several authors. In addition to the approximations already developed for the Schro¨dinger equation, further approximations dealing with relativity must be used. Thus, many of the authors describe methods of solving the fourcomponent equation, and others describe methods for reducing the equation to a two-component form and solving the latter, as well as deriving corresponding formulations in terms of density functional theory. Additional chapters offer descriptions of related topics, such as aspects of relativity not contained in the Dirac equation (quantum electrodynamics), the effects of finite nuclear size, solid-state relativistic effects, and the mathematical properties of Dirac operators. Most of the chapters are sufficiently heavy in mathematics to be slow reading for the general reader. Nevertheless, the depth and scope of the book will make it intriguing to mathematically and computationally inclined readers. Among the less direct, but interesting, topics discussed by more than one author are whether electron spin and its interactions are of relativistic origin or not, and why the choice of units is intricately involved in formulating electromagnetic interactions. Altogether, a large number of approaches to solving relativistic electronic structure are described, some of them extensively tested, some not. Enough results are cited to show that there is currently a “wide spectrum of reliable relativistic electronic structure approaches” (Chapter 14). Most calculations of this type today are being performed using relativistic effective core (pseudo-) potentials or relativistic density functional theory (Chapter 1). Still, the choice of methods depends to a degree on the size of the system and the type of property being studied, which we are likely to learn about in detail when the second volume appears. Including the relativistic aspects of electronic structure theory to an acceptable accuracy is now less difficult than treating the electron correlation aspects of the theory, which may represent a measure of the progress of work in this field (Chapters 6, 14). Russell M. Pitzer, The Ohio State UniVersity JA033529F 10.1021/ja033529f
10.1021/ja033568r CCC: $25.00 © 2003 American Chemical Society
