BOOK REVIEWS Instructions for the qualitative analysis of the 24 o s ~ ~ scations l are included. Thioacetamide is employed in the sulfide precipitations, and the scale is semimicro. Several of the other experiment,^ which were presented on the macro scale in the earlier books have been changed to semimicro, and the quantitative experiments have been sharpened, hoth by improving the precision of weighing and the techniques of manipulation. A final section is devoted to chemical arithmetic, in which the dimensional
approach is empha~ized. Nineteen pages of model examples, wit,h 1.54 problems to solve, meinclnded in this section. Appendices include many useful tables of constants and data, ZL? well as a fourplace table of logarithms, lists of chemicals and apparatus, and instructions for preparation of reagent solutions. For those who wish to present a sound laboratory course which does not depart far from the traditional, but which should prove hoth stimulaling and instructive, Moeller and Martins' book deserves serious consideration.
GAAXTW. SMITH Pennsvlvania State Unive~sitr, University Park
Explorations in Chemistry
Charles A. G ~ a yF, M C Corp., Princeton, New Jersey. E. P. Dutton and Ca., Inc., New York, 1965. 221 pp. Figs. and tables. 17.5 X 25 cm. S5.95. This is a hook written for potential readers rather different from lhose for most volumes reviewed in these pages, but it is one which might. have been of much interest to many teachers. As pointed out in a foreword hy H i l a g Ueasou, director of the library program of the AAAS, the growing emphasis in the lower grades on laboratory work and the experimental aspects of science is encouraging more and more students to try work on their own initiative. These youngsters need more solid fare than the "experiment hooks" which have been produced in the past twenty-five years or so. This book hits, therefore, been written primarily for bay or girl chemists who like to do experiments a t home but it is also suggested as one whieh non-specialist adults and elementary s c h o ~teachers l can enjoy. The first part of the book is well-organised, with the first section covering suggestions for setting up and supplying a laboratory and t,he second summarizing precsution3. The Istter is somewhat weak with regard to precautions in handling fumes. The youngster is cautioned to have "good ventilation," but it is doubtful that he will grasp off-hand what this really means when trying certain of the e ~ ~ e r i m e n l s s u cas h one which involves the reaction of ropper and nitric acid. The main text is, however, puzzling. Part I1 is 8. &page section on Fundamentals of Chemistry, which covers chemical not,at,ion and equations, the periodic table and valence, atomic structure, and chemietll bonding. Part 111, entitled General and Physical Chemistry, includes a chapter on Laboratory Teehnique, plus chapters on Solids, Liquids, and Gases; Solutions; and Chemical Equilibrium. The latter chapters indude some suggested experimelrta. Part 11' is entitled The Elements and Their Campounds and includes "chapters" for the various groups of the periodic table. Suggested experiments are intermingled with discussion. The Boron Family, for example, is a three-page chapter which presents the family by means of the ethyl borate flame test far boric acid, reactions of aluminum with arids and bases, precipitation of some duminum rarnpounds, and crystallization of alum-plus a few sentences of descriptive mst,erinl. There is also a chapter on Organic Chemistry (17 pages-including structural formulas, functional groups, isomerism, fats, sugars nroteins. etc.1. Part V is on eleven Adcalorimetry. I t is not clear what t.we of reader the book is really to serve. The discussion sections me of necessity very sketchy and in some instances weak as well. (The presentation of atomic structure and bond(Cmlinued on page A470)
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Journol of Chemical Education
BOOK REV1E W S ins is esseniiall\. based on the Bahr coy~ceptand the octet rule.) If the book is meant for boys and girls who have not, had chemistry, such discussion is grossly inadequate for the topics purportedly covered. If it is meant for those who have already had chemistry, it is largely wasted effort. The various experiments included are mostly traditional laboratory exercises. As must be expected, some are poorlv chosen-for example, the reaction of copper and sulfur (supposedly to form CUYS)as an example of accurate qusntitative analysis. More disappointing is the general absence of "open-ended" experiments or suggestions which might encourage exploration by the reader. The price of this small volume must also be noted. The book might Prove useful to an ocrarional teacher in the lower grades looking for some reactions to demonstrate. However, even though most chemists would like to give support and encouragement for the main purpose af the book-i.e., to help youngsters illterested in experimenting on their o w l r o n e must conclude that the present volume ia not one which can he highly recommended.
Theory a n d Principles of Electrode
B. E. Conway, University of Ottawa, Canada. Ronald Press Co., New York, 303 DD. Fies. and tahles. 1965. vii 16 x 23.5 cm. $?..
+
After too many years without any major monographs on modern electrochemistry, 1965 has produced two important volumes in this area. Delalmy's "Double Layer and E l e c t r d e Kinetics," though more modest in scope than the p,,t volume, a. very helpful mitical summary of an active and important of electroehemistq, Professor Conway's hook is also very helpful hut in a more parochial fashion. Far those who, with thia reviewer, have found many of the publications of Coilway and his eollabarstors difficult to follow, this volume serves as a. quite useful guidebook. Not having to contend with the brevity that the professional journds require, Professor Conway has seized the and expound his ,,pp,,tun~ty to fundamental hypotheses and assumptions about the mechanisms and kinetics of electrode might be expected from his baekgrou,,d, conway is committed to the Imperial College school ,f whose membem best be to use their owl, term, electr,,dicists. A bssio tenet of this group is the eonROBBINC. ANDERSON viction that addorption of reactants and/or Vniversily of Tezas intermediates is an important step in slAuslin most all non-trivial electrode reactions.
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Journal o f Chemical Education
Conway states ou p. L O : "bIwL reactions not i ~ l v o l v i ~simply ~g changes of valence of inorganic ions proceed by a t least two consecutive steps, adsorbed free radiea.1 intermediates are involved and a heterugeneous desorption s t e p . . . i s required before final product formation occurs." This assumption is not a n unreasonable one but one's convictions about its generality would be strengthened if more of the experimental data were examined critically to test its validity. More often than not the dabs appear to be interpreted as if thia assumption wore known to he truea priori. I t is perhaps not fair t o criticize a hook for stressing Lhe author's predispositions, but it is rhen appropriate to advise the unwary reader that there exist different, if not opposing, viewpoints which are worthy of consideration. Table 4-1, for example, lists the methods available for the study of reactant adsorption but slights the more recently developed faradsie methods. A mrre serirua objertioo must he r s i ~ e dto the ~ x in y whirh U. C. Grahame'r term "pseudocaparital~r:e" is used 1). Conway. C:rahame's definition of the term was very clear and altogelher appropriate. Conway uses it Lo desrribe a differentplienamenan, namely, the change with potential of the charge on the electrode arising from adsorbed reactant or product. The adsorption of something is thus required for the existence of Conway's pseudocapacitance while this is not, true of Crahame's pseudocapacitance.
.. .
(Continued on page A47S)
