Chemical Education Today
Book & Media Reviews Environmental Organic Chemistry, 2nd Edition by Rene P. Schwarzenbach, Philip M. Gschwend, and Dieter M. Imboden Wiley: New York, NY, 2003. xiii + 1313 pp. Figs. and tables. 21.5 x 27.5 cm. ISBN 0471350532 (hardcover), $125; ISBN 0471357502 (paperback), $89.95. reviewed by Cindy M. Lee
This update of the definitive textbook on the fate and behavior of organic contaminants in natural aquatic systems incorporates key features that were missing from the first edition. Qualitative and quantitative problems have been added to each chapter as well as chapters on new topics. The problems build nicely on the examples provided throughout the text, but students may not discover the connection on their own. The problems are challenging and provide opportunities for students to stretch themselves. The text divides 25 chapters into four parts. Chapters that did not appear in the first edition include a general introduction to partitioning; air–organic solvent and air–water partitioning; transport by random motion; transport through boundaries; box models; and models in space and time. There are also three chapters of case studies that previously were included in a separate book along with the problems and illustrative examples. The authors have also expanded some topics: sorption now consists of three chapters, including one on bioaccumulation; there are three chapters for transformations (previously one chapter); and photochemistry has now been split into two chapters. The second edition, as was the first, is intended as a text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying environmental chemistry or environmental engineering. Chemistry students will find the first three parts (introductory material; equilibrium partitioning between gaseous, liquid, and solid phases; and transformations) easily accessible. Engineering students will be comfortable with the fourth part that deals with advective and diffusive transport. The case stud-
ies in part five integrate the concepts from the first four parts. The overall approach depends on a quantitative, thermodynamics-based treatment of equilibrium but the authors do not assume students have taken physical chemistry and so provide the fundamentals in the early part of the text. This edition also supplies some condensed background information on mathematics—such as first-order linear inhomogeneous differential equations when kinetics is introduced. However, the instructor can choose whether to include these topics as well as some of the sections labeled as advanced. The text builds from processes that affect transfer of organic compounds of environmental concern between environmental compartments to processes that change the structure of the compounds. The objective is for the students to be able to construct simple conceptual models that allow prediction of the fate of organic contaminants in lakes, rivers, and groundwater. The use of linear free energy relationships (LFERs) throughout the text serves as a unifying concept and provides students with tools to estimate parameters and readily make predictions. The book is rich with tables of data that support the concepts presented. Figures and many structures also provide insight for those students who benefit from visual interpretations. A few diagrams are provided for some of the conceptual models discussed. The oversize pages and thickness of both the hardback and paperback versions of the book make it difficult to handle—the reader will need a desk to read comfortably. For the equations used in the linear free energy relationships that are a continuing theme, the authors use a complex system of abbreviations and acronyms involving many superscripts and subscripts that can be confusing and difficult to reproduce on a blackboard. In summary the authors have added substantially new material and improved the consistency of presentation in this second edition. This text should continue to be the leader in the field of environmental organic chemistry. Cindy M. Lee is in the Department of Environmental Engineering and Science, Clemson University, 342 Computer Court, Anderson, SC 29625;
[email protected].
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 80 No. 10 October 2003 • Journal of Chemical Education
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