Books
Electronic Instrumentation: Fundamental and Practical Electronics and Instrumentation for Scientists. Howard Malmstadt, Christie Enke, Stanley Crouch, xi + 543 pp. Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Com pany, 2727 Sand Hill Rd., Menlo Park, Calif. 94025. 1981. $24.95
Reviewed by Frank Settle, Jr., De partment of Chemistry, Virginia Mil itary Institute, Lexington, Va. 24450 Electronic instrumentation has be come an integral component of mea surements in all areas of science. This book provides the scientist with an ex cellent resource for understanding the principles of current electronic tech nology. The contents of the book should allow the scientist to select and best utilize instrumentation. The pre sentation is both fundamental and practical. The only prerequisites are basic physics, algebra, and an interest in scientific instrumentation. The advent of microelectronics has made a variety of electronic functions available as encapsulated, unalterable integrated circuits. Thus, the detailed study of transistor amplifier and flipflop circuit design has become less im portant. The organization of the book around system principles and elec tronic functions rather than detailed analysis of specific circuits and com ponents reflects the impact of mi croelectronics. Discrete components such as transistors and resistors are not totally neglected but treated as necessary components of electronic functional units. The approach taken by the authors means that the devel opment of new devices will not make the contents of the book obsolete; rather, these devices will be identified as new ways to achieve functions de scribed in the book. While the contents in general are presented in a lucid style, the reader should be warned that the presenta tion is fast-moving and the material concentrated. The simultaneous de velopment of theory and applications as well as the wide page format with numerous notes and figures in the margins contribute to the rapid pace of the book. It is often necessary to read a section several times to extract all of the information.
The compact presentation allows the traditional topics of dc and ac cir cuits, power supplies, and amplifiers to be developed in the context of mea surement and control applications. In strumentation concepts including feedback control, signal-to-noise en hancement, microcomputer interfac ing, data aquisition, and signal pro cessing are presented along with the methods and current devices for their implementation. Numerous illustra tive applications are very helpful to the reader. Problems and experiments appear at the end of each chapter. The selec tion of problems is good and reflects the pragmatic philosophy of the au thors. The experiments are only genThe approach taken by the authors means that the development of new devices will not make the contents of the book obsolete; rather, these devices will be identified as new ways to achieve functions described in the book. eralized outlines with few procedural details included. A more detailed set of experiments has been published in a workbook written to accompany the text. New terminology is introduced in bold-faced type throughout the chap ters. Although this feature is helpful since jargon is important, the inclu sion of a glossary would be a useful ad dition to the book. The appendices cover practical topics such as ground ing and shielding, manufacturers' specification sheets for integrated cir cuits and components, and pinout di agrams for common integrated circuits and components. This book could be used in either a structured course at the college upperclass or graduate level or for individu al study. The 14 chapters are of nearly uniform length and complexity. In summary, the book is strongly recom mended as a text or reference for any one wishing to undertake a serious
study of current electronic instrumen tation. The authors have improved upon their previously well-received texts on electronics for scientists. Analytical Chemistry of Polycyclic Ar omatic Compounds. Milton Lee, Milos Novotony, Keith Bartle. xi + 462 pp. Academic Press, 111 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10003. 1981. $60
Reviewed by Otto Grubner, Harvard University, Division of Applied Science, E.S.L.,40 Oxford St., Cam bridge, Mass. 02138 This is a useful, informative, and se rious monograph that I would recom mend to any interested professional. Aromatic and polycyclic aromatic compounds have been intensively studied since their discovery in the 19th century. At that time organic and theoretical chemists were interested in the properties and structures of these compounds. Their interest was stimu lated and supported by chemists in applied fields of coal and crude oil processing and by those in the dye and pharmaceutical industries. However, the most intensive research on these compounds began when their toxicity was recognized and linked to carcino genicity. This discovery stimulated re search into the identification, classifi cation and sensitive determination of these compounds. This and the needs of the petroleum and tobacco industrj? lead to the rapid development of the analytical chemistry of organic hydro carbons in general and of polyaromatic hydrocarbons in particular. New an alytical methods were developed, many analytical techniques improved,
Introduction to Analytical Gas Chro matography. History, Principles, and Practice. Vol. 14. Chromatographic Science Series. See LETTERS, ρ 422 A for the
ex
change of comments between John Perry (author) and Leslie Ettre (re viewer). The book review originally appeared in ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY,
October 1981, ρ 1393 A.
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Books and new commercial instruments in troduced to the market. The most important results of this period of analytical activity are sum marized, documented, and critically evaluated in this book. Basic princi ples of the analytical chemistry of PACs are described in six chapters. Although chromatographic methods are stressed (i.e., liquid chromatogra phy, high-performance liquid chroma tography, and gas chromatography), the book deals with other modern methods such as optical spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectros copy, and mass spectrometry. The techniques are appropriately illus trated using practical examples and are well documented with more than 1300 references. Chapters on analytical chemistry are supplemented by chapters de scribing physical and chemical proper ties, occurrence, toxicology, and col lection and sampling of PACs. Impor tant appendices on formulas and clas sification of these compounds—very much appreciated by this reviewer— are included. In my opinion, this monograph will benefit mostly those professionals in fields other than chemistry. Neverthe less, the book will prove to be a valu able source of information to any chemist interested in this field. The book is well printed, edited, and illustrated. I would have preferred a cumulative author index. Overall the book is well worth the price. Quantitative X-Ray Spectrometry. R. Jenkins, R. W. Gould, D. Gedcke. viii + 586 pp. Marcel Dekker, Inc., 270 Madi son Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1981. $59.50
Reviewed by Donald Leyden, Depart ment of Chemistry, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo. 80523 X-ray spectrometry has proved to be a valuable analytical tool in many fields of industry, research, environ mental monitoring, and geochemical analysis. In the roughly 30 years since the introduction of commercial instru mentation, there has been, until re cently, a deficiency of general books on the subject. Recently several have appeared, including the one reviewed here. After a brief historical review in chapter 1, the authors discuss the in teraction of X-radiation with matter in chapter 2. As any understanding of further principles and the practice of X-ray spectrometry depends upon a complete understanding of these fun damentals, it is an important chapter.
The authors do an excellent job of bal ancing qualitative discussions and the use of figures and diagrams to develop a "feeling" for the principles of scat ter, absorption, and fluorescence, and the use of quantitative mathematical expressions necessary for the applica tion of those principles. It is one of the best introductory chapters on this topic the reviewer has read. Chapter 3 provides a critical and indepth discussion of the various meth ods of excitation. The authors give practical limitations and advantages of each method, well illustrated by fig ures and illustrations. Chapter 4, innocently entitled "In strumentation," constitutes over onethird of the book. This chapter at tempts—and does so reasonably well—to educate the reader regarding the bases of both wavelength-disper sive and energy-dispersive X-ray spec trometers. This is a difficult task. By and large, the authors stay on track with the key points. Occasionally their strongly "instrumentation"-oriented background shows, and they venture into a few perhaps unnecessary de tails. It was amusing to see the results of their struggle to get across the con cept of multichannel analyzers. I have usually resorted to letters in post of fice boxes! They, in fact, cover the concepts of pulse height discrimina tion and pulse height analysis very well. The description of statistics in chap ter 5 is very practical and attempts to point out that the precision of an anal ysis depends upon factors other than counting statistics. It is unfortunate that the authors do not introduce the concept of detection limits at this point, as the relationship between the statistics of sample preparation and counting is important to that over used concept as well. As one reads the chapter, the idea slowly comes across that anything dealing with the sample introduces only systematic errors, whereas random errors are only in strumental in origin. This of course is not the case. As the authors point out, modern X-ray instruments can offer relative precision of 0.1% or less. It is difficult to prepare 10 fused pellets or 10 precipitates collected on a filter with such precision. Sample prepara tion is often the largest source of ran dom variations in results. I was sur prised to read the sentence, "Thus, in order to increase analytical precision, the major systematic errors must be recognized and eliminated or reduced" (italics mine). I was also disappointed by the fact that only passing mention was made of the results of L. Currie in this area.
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Chapter 6 is a trivial discussion of computers and their use with X-ray spectrometers. The first part of the chapter is very general. The remainder presents a few points, but insufficient detail in each case to be of real value. The authors fail to point out their dis cussion deals only with treatment of energy-dispersive X-ray spectra. It is a great disappointment that none of the programs for interelement and matrix effect corrections are discussed in relation to the computer require ments. Also, it is unfortunate that no mention is made of the recent devel opments in microcomputer systems, even portable MCA systems. The coverage of sample preparation is adequate, but somewhat superficial. A one-paragraph discussion of liquid samples identifies them as "a nearly ideal specimen type." No mention is made of the advantage of inverted op tics, which most instruments have today, or of scatter problems from or ganic solvents. The level of discussion of sample preparation seems to fall, as does much of the book, somewhere be tween the novice level and that of the experienced X-ray spectroscopist. The chapter entitled "Quantitative Analysis" also seems to vary between levels of readership. The first part deals with wavelength dispersive X-ray spectrometry and to a signifi cant degree repeats material from an earlier book by Jenkins. There is little to aid a novice, and less for an experi enced spectroscopist. The next chap ter is "Basic Problems in Quantitative Analysis." Next comes "Methods and Models for Analysis." The trilogy deals with quantitative measurement by X-ray spectrometry. It would ap pear that these chapters were written independently of each other. Here especially the multiauthor effect is ev ident. Even lack of consistency in terms arises. Κ is used to represent a variable, and earlier the same expres sion uses F which is used for the F-test as well as for excitation overvoltage. Such inconsistencies detract from the book's effectiveness. The chapter on trace analysis is over-concerned with detection limits, a term which this re viewer has found to all but fascinate a component of the X-ray spectrosco pist population. The last chapter is on radiation safety. Chapters 1-4 are well written and present practical information coupled with an appropriate amount of theory. The authors do a good job of devel oping a feeling for the topics. After chapter four, there is deterioration in the quality of the contents and pre sentation. Topics are covered in a su perficial and on occasion almost trivial
Books level. Topics are repeated and instrumentation concepts are mixed in with analytical concepts. The strong points of the book are that it critically describes X-ray instrumentation and techniques and that it has one of the most extensive discussions of energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry of any book to date. In fact, the book has little to offer in the field of wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectrometry that is not available in other, reasonably priced, recently published books. At times, the goal of describing the similarities and contrasts of the two methods creates organizational problems. The book could have been made much more attractive as a text if some exercises had been included. Also, the level of coverage is not appropriate for an introductory text. In the latter chapters, the writing is occasionally ambiguous. The constant reference to EG & G ORTEC for permission to reprint figures is very distracting and gives the book a neon-sign effect as it is read. Under the circumstances, an acknowledgment in the preface would have been more professional.
Advances in Mass Spectrometry. Vol. 8A. xxxiv + 1066 pp. Vol. 8B. xix + 906 pp. A. Quayle, Ed. Heyden & Sons, Inc., 247 South 41st St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19104. 1980. $348
Reviewed by Harry Svec, Professor of Chemistry, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011 These volumes are the proceedings of the 8th Triennial International Mass Spectrometry Conference, held in Oslo, Norway, Aug. 12-18,1979. The volumes are lengthy, and the wide range of topics made the task of reviewing them formidable. My interest in the general topic caused me to scanread most of the papers and read only particular papers in detail. In no way can one comment on all of the papers in a limited review such as this. Volume 8A considers fundamental processes and theory (16 papers); ion/ molecule reactions (8); negative ions (5); quantitative mass spectrometry, isotope ratios and dilution (12); spark source mass spectrometry, high temperature (17); secondary ion mass spectrometry (10); ion chemistry (40); and ionization of nonvolatile compounds (20). Volume 8B considers biochemical and biomedical applications (39); forensic and environmental applications (16); computer applications (10); instrumentation (44); and miscellaneous topics (8). The number of presentations in each area speaks em-
phatically about where the action is concentrated, the relative activity corresponding well in similar areas with programs of American Society for Mass Spectrometry Conferences. It is gratifying to see that activity involving more basic studies and new instrumentation is well represented. It is also patently evident that the use of mass spectrometers to solve critical analytical problems, qualitative and quantitative, accounts for the greatest activity. One cannot but ponder the truth of a prediction made by J. J. Thomson in 1913 that " . . . many problems in chemistry could be solved with far greater ease by this than by any other method." This reviewer, who did not attend the conference, found many exciting and thought-stimulating papers scattered throughout the two volumes. The presentations were clear and the format excellent. Those papers that did not excite me may represent more my own biases than a criticism of substance. My general feeling, however, was that many papers dealing with biochemical and biomedical problems and a few papers dealing with other applications did not exhibit the kind of creative spark that papers in some other areas had. While the results of such studies may contribute important insights into the problems they solve, only occasionally did they contribute to the advancement of mass spectrometry per se. This should not be construed as an indictment of a particular application but rather a sign of the maturing of mass spectrometry as a general tool, applicable to chemical problems in a way so aptly predicted by Thomson ~70 years ago. This is the kind of reference that should be on the shelves of any firstclass technical library. The price is high, however, and whether or not individuals will seek to own a set of the two volumes is a moot point. If one is to criticize the volumes in any way (the same criticism applies to previous Volumes in this series) it concerns the arrival of the published work long after the conference date. In view of the format for this conference, which is held every three years, much of the presented work is a year or two old even before it is presented. Adding several months to a year or so to the publishing of the proceedings means that the described work does not represent studies at the cutting edge of an advancing science. The age of the described work thus makes it of greater value as a reference than as a stimulus for new work. The publisher's presentation of the volumes, so ably edited by Alan Quayle and his aides, is admi-
rable. However, the conference organizers should consider adopting a plan that would have Volume 9 of "Advances in Mass Spectrometry" in the hands of interested scientists, who did or did not attend the conference, within three or four months after the conference at the most. Thus Volume 9 of this series should appear in December 1982 or January 1983 if the general scientific community is to reap the greatest benefit from the described work. It can be done, and ASMS proved it in 1981. In this day and age of speedy communication, there has to be a better way of getting the proceedings of conferences into the hands of the scientific community as early as possible. Up to a year or so later is too long.
Books Received Pharmaceutical Analysis. Part A. James Munson, Ed. xi + 485 pp. Marcel Dekker Inc., 270 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. 1981. $55 Methods of Analysis. Yorkshire Water Authority. West Riding House, 67 Albion St., Leeds LSI 5AA, U.K. 1981. £ 1 5 Detection and Measurement of Hazardous Gases. C. F. Cullis, J. G. Firth, Eds. xi + 226 pp. Heinemann Educational Books Inc., 4 Front St., Exeter, N.H. 03833. 1981. $35 Environmental Speciatfon and Monitoring Needs for Trace Metal-Containing Substances from Energy-Related Processes: Proceedings of a Workshop. Frederick Brinckman, Richard Fish, Eds. xi + 324 pp. Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. 1981. $25.50 Mossbauer Spectroscopy and Its Chemical Applications. John Stevens, Gopal Shenoy. xiii + 642 pp. American Chemical Society, 1155 16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. 1981. $69.95
The first section of this 29-chapter volume deals with the use of molecular orbital calculations to study chemical bonding in halogen-containing compounds and the electronic properties of intermetallic, inorganic, and organometallic compounds. The second section concentrates on conversion electron Mossbauer spectroscopy. The next three sections cover environmental, analytical, and biological applications. The sixth section focuses on the use of isotopes and the seventh on phase analysis. The final section deals with energy and catalyst applications.
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