BOOKS profits is not easily curbed. I recom mend that purchasers do as I did— excise the offending pages and mail them to Elsevier headquarters in Hol land. To summarize, Marshall and Ver dun have made an important contri bution with this text and I predict it will be well appreciated by those who use it. I believe it should be in the li brary of any spectroscopist using FT techniques. I will certainly recom mend it to my own students.
Principles of Chemical Sensors. Jiří Janata, xi + 317 pp. Plenum Press, 233 Spring St., New York, NY 10013. 1989. $40 Reviewed by Garry A. Rechnitz, Hawaii Bi osensor Laboratory, Department of Chemis try, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2545 the Mall, Honolulu, HI 96822 Janata states that his book is intend ed for a one-semester course at the graduate and upper undergraduate levels. It is well suited for such a pur pose. The secondary aim, to be useful to scientists and engineers involved in
the development of new types of chem ical sensors, is less well achieved. Janata's book is arranged in chap t e r s d e a l i n g w i t h four p r i n c i p a l m o d e s of s i g n a l t r a n s d u c t i o n — thermal, mass, electrochemical, and optical—plus an introductory chapter dealing with selectivity, molecular recognition aspects of biosensors, and some systems consideration. Finally, there is a lengthy appendix covering some basic background principles. Literature citations are rather sparse but up to date. There is a five-page subject index but no author index. The long chapter on electrochemi cal sensors is by far the strongest sec tion of the book. Here, the author writes with authority and from per sonal experience. His treatment of potentiometric, amperometric, and conductometric sensors is lucid and very useful. On the other hand, J a n a t a is less successful in illuminating the employment of electrochemical sen sors as components in the design of biosensors, and he restricts himself— perhaps wisely—to a few classical en zyme systems. The chapters on t h e r m a l , mass, and optical sensors provide much use
ful information and some insightful interpretation of these transducers. Indeed, t h e principal attraction of this book is that information on a di versity of sensors is gathered togeth er in a single volume. Janata's overall approach is both critical and conservative. He inten tionally rejects any emphasis on what he calls "the tricks of the trade." This will be greatly appreciated by stu dents, but it also makes the book somewhat less useful to more experi enced workers who recognize that the frontier areas of any research field need to be a little speculative. The sensor a n d , especially, biosensor areas are definitely fields of endeavor in which the scientific rewards real ized are related to the risks taken. I enjoyed J a n a t a ' s style of going straight to the heart of the matter as, for example, in the introductory chap ter. Although not all workers in the field would agree with all of the state ments made here, Janata's discussion of selectivity is both thought provok ing and challenging. On balance, the book is worth having and is recom mended for anyone in need of a singlevolume treatment of chemical sensors.
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