book reviews volumes added to their institution's li. brary. H. Lawrence Clever Emory University
Atlanta. Georgia 30322
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Ruth M. Lyndell-Bell, University of Sussex, Robin K. Harris, University of East Anglia. Thomas Nelson & Sons, Ltd., London, 1975.160 pp. Figs. and tables. 15 X 23 cm. $7.50.
quite right. The second chapter discusses the analysis of high resolution nmr spectra. Dirac vector notation and mathematics is used throughout this section and some of the necessary mathematics is reviewed in the chapter. The presentation will not be as useful to the new student ss is Robert's monograph on the same subject. Advanced students will prohably find that theeffort necessary to benefit from this chapter might just as well he spent on a more complete work such as that by Corio or the first volume of Emsley Feeny and Suteliffe. Chapter three is an outstanding presentation of the theory of chemical shifts and coupling. This chapter alone is worth the price of the book. It is the best short discussion bridging the gap between quantum chemistry and empirical correlations of chemical shifts and couplings that this reviewer is aware of. Further, while the main emphasis is on 'H i t discusses chemical shift and couoline constant effects for other nuclei and explains the theoretical origins of the differences between hydrogen rhemical shifts and couplings and those ubserved for other nuclei. Chapter four considers relaxation and double resonance. The Bloch equations are examined and an elementary introduction to various pulse experiments is presented. The latter was sorely needed a t the time this was originally written (1969), but the discussion has been outdone by more recent works such as that of Farrar and Becker. Likewise, the discussion of double quantum and double resonance spectra has t o some extent been superseded by decreased interest on the one hand, and more extensive treatment of the subject in more recent works. All the chapters contain good problems the answers t o some of which are included a t the hack of the hook. A list of suggestions for further reading is included which, to some extent, compensates for the Lack of any references elsewhere in the hook. The quality of the book is generally good although the graphics are poorer than one might wish. ~
One might reasonably ask, "Why another nmr book?" As the authors point our nmr is covered extensively in most undergraduate programs and a variety of advanced books are available for graduate courses and for the specialist. However, a gap exists (or existed in the past) between the qualitative applications presented to most undergraduates and the highly mathematical and comprehensive treatments of the advanced works. This monograph does a reasonable job of attempting to bridge that gap, particularly in presenting the physico-chemical basis of nmr which is missing from the qualitative introductory approaches. In fact, i t might better be titled, "An Introduction to the Physies and Physical Chemistry of NMR", since it does not contain any of the extensive tables of chemical shift and coupling constant correlations, or examples of applications to structure determination, that one finds in such works as Paudler, Jackman and Sternhell, Levy and Nelson, or Bihle. Unfortunately, as the American issue of a work originally published in Great Britain in 1969, just before the appearance of commecial pulseFourier Transform spectrometers, it contains no information on this subject or on I3C nmr which received such a ereat boost as aresult uf the availabliliry of p&e-FT spertromewrs. It dues contain. in fourchapter*, most of the ha& phyical princrples assuciated with classical nmr and the associated mathematics. The emphasis on explaining the physieochemieal basis of nmr necessarily requires a substantial background in physics and mathematics some of which is presented in the book, but most of whichisassumed. The average American undergraduate or fust year graduate student will probably be somewhat less well prepared to use this book than his European counterpart. The first chapter introduces or reviews basic principles. Much of this material such as Larmour precession, first-order spectra, and various experimental aspects of nmr should be familiar to most students. Some new or uncommon material is covered in more than usual detail including angular momentum, the physics of electron and nuclear spin, and an excellent section on equivalence. Use of SI units makes this and suhseauent sections uo to date. but mav be somewhat disconcerting to the student who finds that familiar equations do not look ~~
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of spectroscopy." I t would appear that this set of aims would be more suitable for areview series, such as "Applred Spectn.aa,py Reviews" and rt is hard to see the ~ustificatwn fc,r a second set of volumes such as this hwk represents. I cannot imagine using this book as a text for any sort of spectroscopic course and I question its usefulness as a reference work in the library. This is not meant to imply that it is either poorly written or inaccurate, but that i t fails to fill any particular gap in what is currently available in most libraries. It might he noted parenthetically that the book does contain an unusual number of missprints. This book contains four chapters and each is written by an expert in the field of vibrational spectroscopy. There is essentially no continuity between the chapters, however. The first chapter is an introduction t o molecular vibrations. It is written in achatty way which makes it easy to read and keeps the reader's interest but does tend to make i t imprecise in parts. I t tends to inform the reader of what can be done, but does not really tell him how. The second chapter is entitled Inorganic Materials, but is really a treatment of symmetry and applied group theory using inorganic compounds as examples. I t is not what the usual reader might expect of such a title in a book which is billed as a Practical Spectroscopy Series. Chapter three is entitled Organometallic Compounds: Vibrational Analysis. The chapter goes throueh the assienment of modes of a few organnmetallic cr.mpounda, which server to illustrate the techniques, hut the chapter is not a thorough coverage of organametallic compounds. Chapter four, entitled Ionic Organometallic Solutions, is a very specialized topic. It is in essence a review article covering work in the author's laboratory on a sneeialized area of research. In summary, I do not helreve this hook will find much use, even by lihrary atandarda. I believe the price further srpuesagainst it-it certainly does not seem a good buy to this reviewer. J. E. Kmn Miami University Oxrord. Ohio 45056
stanfwd L. Smim University of Kentucky Lexingto~Kenhrcky 40506
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A246 1 Journal of Chemical Education
Infrared and Raman Spectroscopy. Parl A. Edward G. Brame, Jr., editor, E. I. duPont Nemours and Co., Inc., Wilmington, Delaware. and Jeanette G. Grasselli, Standard Oil Co., Cleveland, Ohio. Marcel Dekker, Inc., New Yolk, 1976. ix 345 pp. Tahles. 16 X 23.5 em. 533.75
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This is a difficult book to review because its intended audience is not a t all clear. One suspects that the intended audience was not clearly known to the authors of the various ehaoters. since the treatment is un= ~ either. . usually uneven. Parts of the book are written s t a rairly fundamental level and aresuitable for the novicp-other pans are quite specialized and appear t o have been written more as a review article for the reader who is knowledgeable in vibrational spectroscopy. The preface states that "the aims and objective of this new series [of volumes] is t o cover all possible applications of the different fields ~~~~
An lniroductlon to Radiation Chernlstry. 2nd Edltlon.
J. W.T.Spinks andR. J. Woods, University of Saskatchewan. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1976. xiv 504 pages. Figs. and tables. 16 X 24 cm. 524.95.
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Written a t the advanced undergraduate-beginning graduate level, this hook is intended to be useful as both a text and an introductory reference. With certain limitations, it should serve well its intended purpose. Folldwing a historical chapter are four chanters an fundamentals: source of radiation and the interaction of radiation with matter. radiation dosimetry, ion; and excited m r h cules and free rad~rals,and radiolysis kinetics. Surveys of radiation effects in gases, water and aqueous solutions, end organic compounds comprise the next three chapters. A rather skimpy treatment of radiation ef-
