Chemical Education Today
Book & Media Reviews
edited by
Jeffrey Kovac University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN 37996-1600
NMR and Chemistry: An Introduction to Modern NMR Spectroscopy, 4th Edition by J. W. Akitt and B. E. Mann Stanley Thornes: Cheltenham, UK, 2000. vii + 400 pp. ISBN 0-7487-4344-8. $49.50. reviewed by Manish Mehta
In a mature field such as magnetic resonance many good books already exist. A case in point is NMR and Chemistry: An Introduction to Modern NMR Spectroscopy by J. W. Akitt and B. E. Mann, now in its fourth edition. This book has been around for close to 30 years in various incarnations, undergoing major additions and revisions between editions. In the fourth edition the authors have updated and expanded the book to render it very attractive as an introductory text for an undergraduate and graduate audience of broad backgrounds. The text is divided into 11 chapters that cover the theory of NMR, chemical shift and spin–spin coupling, relaxation, spectrometer hardware, multipulse techniques, exchanging systems, 2-D techniques, imaging, and solid-state NMR. This book is not intended for the specialist in the field. The authors have intentionally kept the mathematics to a minimum and they do not rely on a quantum mechanical formalism to develop the key concepts. The word Hamiltonian does not even appear in the index. The product operator formalism is not invoked. The authors are able, however, to convey the essential ideas through graphical and vectorial approaches using their honed, lucid prose. Such an approach is ultimately smart and inviting and does not risk alienating the book’s intended constituency while maintaining a respectable level of depth and rigor. The authors’ intention seems to be to impart a working knowledge of NMR spectroscopy to a student of chemistry, and the book succeeds in this endeavor. As high-field magnets (400 MHz and higher) have become commonplace, texts have not always kept up in their use of examples from contemporary spectrometers. Such an incongruity between text and reality can quietly condemn a
book to obsolescence in students’ minds, no matter its other strengths. One of the welcome aspects of this book is that all of the spectra used as illustrations are taken at 400 MHz at least, and there are some at 500 and 600 MHz. Another thoughtful feature is that the field strength is always specified in the caption to every spectrum. Would that all texts followed this convention. The chapter on spectrometer hardware discusses modern digital Fourier transform spectrometers using block diagrams to illustrate various components. The authors have abandoned discussion and use of continuous wave spectroscopy. The authors remain true to the title of the book: it is a book about NMR and chemistry. Examples of organic compounds and inorganic complexes abound. The book is richly populated with chemical structures and sample spectra. A healthy emphasis on multinuclear spectra (not merely 1 H, 13C) sends the students a message that NMR is not confined to a handful of nuclei of interest to organic and biophysical chemists. I counted 1-D or 2-D spectra of 17 different nuclei across the text. In an age of easy desktop publishing the graphical quality of recent books seems to be on the decline. I am happy to say that the authors and publisher of this book have given careful, thorough attention to the graphical presentation. The figures—crisp and pleasant to look at—help give the book a contemporary feel. The list of references (mostly classic texts), divided by categories, given at the end of the book, could be more extensive. Most chapters are followed by a series of problems. Many of the problems have accompanying 1-D and 2-D spectra, some taken from the published literature. A brief answer to each question is given at the end of the book. The preface to the answers section directs the reader to the publisher’s Web site for more thorough answers. My attempts to find the longer answers were unsuccessful, though that could be a temporary glitch at the Web site. A useful list of abbreviations, symbols, and acronyms appears at the beginning of the book. I look forward to introducing my students to this book and to using it as a text in my upper-division undergraduate course on modern methods of NMR. I plan to put this book within easy reach on my shelf of easy-to-read NMR texts. Practicing NMR spectroscopists, teachers of NMR, and students of NMR should consider doing the same. Manish Mehta is in the Department of Chemistry, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH 44074;
[email protected].
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 79 No. 6 June 2002 • Journal of Chemical Education
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