Book and Media Review pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Review of Laboratory Techniques in Organic Chemistry: Supporting Inquiry-Driven Experiments, 4th Edition Wheeler Conover* Natural Sciences and Mathematics Division, Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College, Cumberland, Kentucky 40823, United States mercury-filled manometers (Chapter 12) is puzzling to me. Still, it is heartening that Mohrig discusses oxidation of alcohols to ketones with a bleach alternative, because it was he who reported the use of bleach as an alternative to chromic acid to this Journal in the 1980s.2 Chapter 8 (computational chemistry), while discussing a technique, might be better placed later in the text. However, miniscale, microscale, and Hammond techniques are given equal treatment throughout the chapters, with icons denoting each. Each major topic is presented using the same order of features. An essay section, set off in blue, provides background for the topic before the technique is discussed. This section tends to range from extremely useful (intermolecular forces and acid−base chemistry for Section III) to virtually useless (spectroscopy for Section IV). More balance would help students. Each chapter provides a section on sources of confusion and pitfalls, which is an excellent resource for students. The later chapters on spectroscopy provide case studies with each technique. Case studies are not provided for earlier chapters as set apart from the text, and so their utility may not be as high as expected from other provided examples in textbooks. In some books, text will overwhelm figures or vice versa. This is one textbook that I believe strikes the optimum balance between the two. Figures are clean and detailed. There was an earlier reviewer who mentioned that some figures of assembled apparatus could show more clamp support to increase safety.3 In this edition, I found that the assemblies generally have illustrations showing proper support. The text is also easy to read and is understandable. This book certainly does not treat computational chemistry or instrumental techniques as “black boxes”, even when discussing features such as NMR additive parameters of chemical shifts for alpha, beta, and gamma carbons. I am truly surprised by the book’s supplemental Web site. The free resources on the student site are tremendous, especially the videos that are available to supplement techniques and the spectra accompanying the compounds discussed in the book. The authors also provide a 54-page PDF that discusses organic qualitative analysis in detail. I can almost hear the discussions now: do faculty use the Web site alone and supplement it with their own materials, thereby running the risk of not adopting the book, or is the Web site provided to give faculty high-quality supplements for which they would normally search? While I have given a glowing evaluation of Laboratory Techniques in Organic Chemistry through its first 26 chapters,
Downloaded by 122.184.141.8 on September 9, 2015 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date (Web): August 4, 2015 | doi: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00528
Laboratory Techniques in Organic Chemistry: Supporting Inquiry-Driven Experiments, 4th edition, by Jerry R. Mohrig, David G. Alberg, Gretchen E. Hofmeister, Paul F. Schatz, and Christina Noring Hammond. W. H. Freeman and Company: New York, 2014. xvi + 528 pp; illustrations, tables. ISBN: 9781464134227 (paperback). $91.99. will be teaching organic chemistry for the first time in nearly 15 years this fall. My friends are doubled over in laughter at this point and are fearful for the students who have to take my class and lab. We’ll make it throughbut first, I have to figure out how to run an organic lab again. That’s where it has helped to have Laboratory Techniques in Organic Chemistry in front of me.
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Cover image provided by W. H. Freeman and Company and reproduced with permission.
This particular edition, subtitled Supporting Inquiry-Driven Experiments, appears to be the direct successor to Techniques in Organic Chemistry1 and is labeled as a fourth edition. It is one in a direct line of organic experiment and technique books that have been authored by Jerry Mohrig with various coauthors for over 40 years. The primary audience for this textbook is the student in the mainline organic chemistry sequence; however, the book has more than enough detail so that it could be used in an advanced organic synthesis laboratory by a senior-level chemistry major. But what about using it in a lab that uses inquiry-based experiments? Not so much, as I will elaborate. There are six major parts to this textbook: lab organization and safety (Chapters 1−3, with a nod to the SDS); introduction to techniques (4−8); methods for purification, separation, and analysis (9−17); chromatography (18−20); organic instrumentation (21−26); and designing organic syntheses (27−28). Green chemistry (Chapter 2) is introduced early; however, the inclusion of the use vacuum techniques with © 2015 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
Published: August 4, 2015 1433
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00528 J. Chem. Educ. 2015, 92, 1433−1434
Downloaded by 122.184.141.8 on September 9, 2015 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date (Web): August 4, 2015 | doi: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00528
Journal of Chemical Education
Book and Media Review
what is the evaluation of the inquiry-based experiment section (Chapters 27−28)? There is nothing in these two chapters that could not have been included earlier. Most prominently, there are several experiments that were modified from the procedures originally published in the chemical literature, complete with problems encountered when the experiments were first modified for the second-year-level laboratory. While inquirybased experiments are a back-door way to introduce chemistry research to a wider audience (and that is not presented as derogatory), we have to remember that students who may have just finished general chemistry still need more guidance than the typical advanced undergraduate or graduate student. It is my opinion that the introduction failed here. However, using a customized lab manual through W. H. Freeman’s LabPartner database4 or through other experiments might make this text the perfect resource for any organic chemistry student. If one pursues organic chemistry as a vocation, this is a book that should be used as a resource long after leaving the introductory academic laboratory. Will I use it? More than likely I will use it myself. However, the $92 price may keep me from adopting it, as I already require students to pay nearly $350 for their classroom materials. Give me time to think about it and to teach my students safely first. Then we’ll talk.
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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REFERENCES
(1) Mohrig, J. R.; Hammond, C. N.; Schatz, P. F. Techniques in Organic Chemistry, 3rd ed.; W. H. Freeman and Company: New York, 2010. (2) Mohrig, J. R.; Nienhuis, D. M.; Linck, C. F.; Van Zoeren, C.; Fox, B. G.; Mahaffy, P. G. The Design of Laboratory Experiments in the 1980s: A Case Study on the Oxidation of Alcohols with Household Bleach. J. Chem. Educ. 1985, 62, 519−521. (3) Pagni, R. M. Techniques in Organic Chemistry: Miniscale, Standard Taper Microscale, and Williamson Microscale (Mohrig, Jerry R.; Hammond, Christina Noring; Schatz, Paul F.; Morrill, Terence C.). J. Chem. Educ. 2003, 80, 388. (4) Lab Partner. Freeman Custom Publishing: New York. http:// www.macmillanhighered.com/catalog/static/whf/labpartner/ (accessed Jul 2015).
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.5b00528 J. Chem. Educ. 2015, 92, 1433−1434
