Organic Chemistry. T h e Basis of Llfe Bernard Miller. Benjamin-Cummings, Menlo Park. CA. 1980. v 472 pp. Figs. and tables. 24.2 X 19.4 cm. 516.95.
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An attempt to write a one-semester organic teat that emphasizes biochemical molecules and reactions has an unfortunate tendency t o end as an abridged chemistry major text containing tenuously connected biological examples. A notable exception is Professor Miller's text. in which the author skillfully lnw an organic itrurturnl and mrchnn~srietl~undstimto supporr the hiochemical topics he has selected. Miller's text, designed for a one-semester course for students majoring in areas related to the life sciences, follows a rather conventional functional m o m awroach with theorv
groups and structures that are important in livingsystems, and he has elected toemphasize those mechanisms that model key hiological reactions. For example, electrophilie aromatic substitution syntheses and mechanisms are given only fleeting attention, but the reverse aldol condensation is covered thoroughly as a prelude to discussion of the action of aldolase in glycolysis. The pruning of traditional topics may offend some teachers, but the result is a book of organizational integrity and reasonable size that conveys an adequate introduction to most of the basic a s ~ e c t sof oreanic chemistrv. Incidentallv.
tion. The combination of conversational style, stepwise introduction of concepts, and good anticipation of student difficulties should make this tent an effective teaching tool. A
reasonable variety of good problems is provided. The number of errors of all types is low. The conversational stvle oecasionallv . leads the author inla imprecise smtemenrti: fur example, rhe chararrwirarion ur small r y r 1 d k i . w ~as planar m o l e ~ ~ l ran s , assertion that in Newman projection ethane is looked a t from the front; and a claim that the atomsuferhene lir in aplane that isprrpcw d~rulnrr o t h s p i o n e o l r h ~ p tbund. The rrrm "eclinsed" is used on Dart. 60 but is defined on oaee 62. The most'sekms shortcaminss
ether as an anesthetic is out-of-date. A noteworthy strength of this title is the frequent, effective connection that is made hetween structure and chemical and physical properties. In addition t o intensifying the student's interest, these connections should give him or her a good "feel" for the science. The text has a useful glossary and a brief index, and a study guide and instructor's manual are available. There is an adequate number of clear figures and diagrams. On the whole, "Organic Chemistry-The Basis of Life" does what its author intended: it establishes a solid basis for the understanding of elementary biochemical malecules and reactions. Instructors seeking a selective, rigorous, biologically oriented, one-semester text should give strong consideration to this textbook.
HOMER A. SMITH. JR.
principles a n d Applications of Homogeneous Catalysis Akira Nakamura and Mlnoru Tsutsui, John Wiley & Sons, New Yoh. 1980. ix 204 pp. Figs. and tables. 15.5 X 23.5 cm.
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The intent of this book is to familiarize the reader with rile rapidly expandma and inureas~nglyimporlnnr licld id humupenn,us ratalpts h) mrtnl nm.plexes. A l t h ~ w hrhs authors state that a knowledge of organic, inorganic, and physical ehemistry a t the graduate level is assumed, a senior-level undergraduate who has taken an advanced inorganic chemistry course should have no difficulty with the material presented. The authors state that i t is their aim "to systematize this rapidly expanding field and have included relevant acid-base catalysts, organic catalysts, and enzymesn-all in 194 pages of text. As such this hook is extremely shallow in its coverage of any one particular aspect of this subject. The book begins with an Introductory chapter of 7 pages whieh discusses the present status and outlook. This is followed by an incredibly short four-page chapter which attempts to outline the Characteristic Features of homogeneous catalysts. From there the authors proceed to a chapter entitled Basic Principles (31 pp.) whieh discusses elementary chemical kinetics and energetics, activation and deactivation of active sites, fundamental aspects of selectivity, stereochemistry, orbital symmetry, and reactivity. The next chapter is entitled Elementary Processes (64 pp.). In it the authors first discuss general electrophilie, nueleophilic, electron donor-acceptor, and radical interactions and then the elementarv reactions which transition metal complexes undergo. They then proceed into a chapter on Mech-
Hampden-Sydney College Hampden-Sydney, VA 23943
(Continued on page A226)
-Reviewed in this Issue Bernard Miller, Organic Chemistry Akira Nakamura and Minoru Tsutsui, Principles and Applications of Homogeneous Catalysis Jerome I. Kaplan and Gideon Fraenkel, NMR of Chemical Exchanging S y s t e m s Edwin D. Becker. High Resolution NMR Theory and Chemical Applications American Society for Testing & Materials, Manual on Practices in Molecular Spectroscopy Dutch Safety Institute, Handling Chemicals Safely McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Environmental Science, Second Edition Linda Baine McGown and J o h n O'M. Bockris. How t o Obtain Abundant Clean Energy Taff Y. Toribara, Morton W. Millerand Paul E. Morrow, Polluted Rain John E. Barnes and Alan J. Waring, Pocket Programmable Calculators
Volume 58
Reviewer Homer A. Smith Jr.
A225
Gregory L. Geoffroy Henry H. Dearman Robert G. Hayes
A225 A226 A226
H. F. S h u ~ e l l J a y A. Young James L. Pyle
A226 A227 A226
Buddhadev Sen John W. Birks Ronald M.
A228 A228 A229
con
Number 7
July 1981
A225
anisms (62 pp.) and give a hrief coverage of what is known about the mechanisms of ftunwen ditfrrrnt canlyml t r n n s f ~ ~ r m a t w s An exnml,lr 01 the lark ot depth uf thus text ib thesranr threepagr+theauthc,rsgivc tothe very important class of carbonylation reactions. Only two pages are allotted for catalvzed isomerizations; hydrogenation catalysis merits five pages. Thenext chapter on Further Developments (14 pp.) presents those areas in which the authors perceive t o need more attention, and this is fallowed by a twelve-page chapter which outlines the Industrial Applications of homogeneous catalysts. This book could, perhaps, prove useful to the chemist who would like t o obtain an overview of the general field of homogeneous catalysis. Because of its shallow coverage, it cannot be recommended enthusiastically for adoption as a text for any serious course which purports to teach students the most important aspects of this field. GREGORYL. GEOFFROY The Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA 16802
Capitol Campus Middletown, PA 17507 NMR of Chemical Exchanging S y s t e m s Jerome I. Kaplan and Gideon Fraenkel. Academic Press, New York, NY. 1980,xi 165 pp. Figs. and tables. 15.5 X 23.5 cm.
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This small book has considerable merit. Its stated objective is to bring together a unified density matrix formulation of the caleulstian of NMR lineshapes for all kinds of exchangingsystems. Thisgoal is met with success. Its format and algebraic detail seem to imolv an attemot to orovide the reader with .kunderrtdn& ofthedensit) m ~ l r i x thrury of K M R lineshap+-s from nesrlv llrst principles. It I perre:\t- t h ~ d,jertivr i wrrectly, i t is met with less success. The first three chapters give historical background. Bloeh equations, and an introduction to the density matrix, using the method to calculate the absorption peak of a system of "on-interacting identical spin 112 particles. The reader is given little insight into what a density matrlx is or does and is left on his own as to exponential operators. Accepting the paucity of background, the sample calculation itself is algebraically detailed, with few if any steps left out, and is quite instructive. In the next two chapters which complete the preliminaries, relaxation and exchange are developed. Here again one is confronted with a puzzling combination of algebraic detail and absent background. Liouville operators, or super operators, for example, are introduced on an ad hac basis. It would seem that a reader well versed in the lore and practice of relaxation theory would not require all the intermediate steps, whereas just that reader who needs them should he provided with more discussion of the starting points. Nonetheless, the applications of the general fornulation to various mechanisms are straightforward and thorA226
Journal
of Chemical Education
ough. The development of exchange contributions to the time dependence of the density matrix for a number of important molecular reorganizations places emphasis on the chemical description of the exchange mechanisms. Here the authors oresent ideas and tcchniqurr whirh i w s wdved fmm t h m m n reitarch work in this field. The drsruxS I and ~ rhccxamplcsshuuld b e ~ henefir t tc, both srutlenrr nnd practiticmeri. I'hr prinrtple material of the book :scantainrd in Charlter \'I. in whirh ararcfu1,dctailed aceouni of NMR lineshapes for exchanging systems is presented. The reader is provided with enough detail to be able to carry out lineshape calculations. Applications to a number of experimentally encountered situations are described. Effects of weak and strong coupling between exchanging systems are distinguished clearly. I particularly aporeciated the straiehtforward derivation of ihe well-known. b i t mvsterious.. eauation . whirh y~vesthe linewidth broadening of rhe t w ~ - s i r..ystrn> e :usr hduw the fast exchange limit. The remainder of the bookis composed of hrief chapters concerned with high rf fields, double resonance, and transient effects as might be encountered in Fourier transform experiments. By and large, the treatment of these topia is too brief to be of much value to a newcomer to the field. The style employed in the hook is pleasantly conversational. The inevitable misprints are kept to an acceptable minimum and usually are easy to spot because of the detail of the algebra. More irritating are several incorrect citations t o the numhersof preceding equations. "NMR of Chemically Exchanging Systems" is recommended t o the "serious student of NMR"and to the beginner who keeps his copy of Slichterl or Abragam2 close a t hand. Siichter. C. P.. "Principles of Magnetic Resonance," Harper and Row. New York. 1963. Abragam, A,. "The Principles of Nuclear Magnetism." Oxford University Press. London. 1981.
HENRYH. DEARMAN University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. NC 27514
High Resolution NMR Theory a n d Chemical Applications, 2nd Edition Edwin D. Becker, Academic Press. New York. 1980.xiv 354 pp. Figs. and tables. 15.5 X 23.5 cm. $24.00.
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This book is, as the title indicates, the ;econd edition of a book which appeared in First edition in 1969. It contains muchof the more basic material on the fundamentals of NMR, on the analysis of high-resolution NMR soectra. and on the interoretation of the parameters characterizing a high-resoiution NMR spectrum which appeared in the First edition. It also contains an expanded discussion of relaxation phenomena and of dynamic NMR, and much new material on d s e and Fourier-transform NMR and on XDNP. The latter areas were very poorly a t the time of the first edition. The dievelooed . material on pulse and Fourier transform NMR is similar to some of the material in the book, "Pulse and Fourier-Transform NMR"
by T. C. Farrar and Edwin C. Becker. It has been the author's stated intention in both editions of the bookunder discussion to provide a treatment of NMR of hroad scope i t a n intermediate level of advancement: a treatment which would be suitable for an introductory graduate-level course in NMR or for the education of established scientists from outside the more physical disciplines. He has been markedly successful in these goals, in the reviewer's opinion. The book, although not overly long, has a t least some discussion of most of the aspects of NMR with which a worker must be conversant. The discussions are constructed with enough detail to allow the student to follow the outlines of the argument, if he so desires, without including the detail desired by the specialist but oppressive to most students. Most of the chapters end with a few problems. These tend to be rather straightforward and emphasize understanding of the material a t the most basic level. There is, in addition, a goodly number of spectra displayed for analysis a t the end of the hook. In this edition, several 13C spectra are included. One is rarely happy with every aspect of a book and the reviewer should have preferred tosee the discussions of the analysis of camplex spectra and of some aspects of doubleresonance shortened. It seems to me that these are oerhaos not as imwrtant in oradice nuu n i they were wme years ago, eqwcisllv with the current tendency ruunrd KMll nr ever-hlyher t d d s . The space saved wuld have been devoted to expanded discussions of techniques of more current interest and utility, such as gated decoupling in pulse NMR, off-resonance decoupling, and saturation transfer. Dr. Becker's book is, to the reviewer's knowledge, the only modern, compact, reasonably broad treatment of high-resolution NMR available. I t will surely he of great utility to students and t o all but the most experienced practitioners of high-resolution NMR. ROBERTG. HAYES University of Natre Dame Notre Dame. IN 46556
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Manual on Practices in Molecular Spectroscopy American Society for Testing & Materials. Philadelphia. 1979.vii 162 pp. Figs. and tables. 16 X 23.5 cm.
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This is a small paperback book containing a collection of articles on various spectroscopic topics. The topics are grouped into six sections: nomenclature, adequacy of available equipment, general qualitative analysis, infrared methods, ultraviolet methods, and photometric methods. However, it is by no means a comprehensive treatise on molecular spectroscopy. The hook contains all current standards approved by ASTM committee E-13 on Molecular Spectroscopy, together with examples of successful adoption of the recommendations by other ASTM committees in the formulation of practical test methods based on molecular spectroscopy. The book provides a source of recommended practices and other useful spectroscopic information. I t might be useful as a supplementary reference for a course on an-
