RECENT BOOK REACTIONSOF HYDROGEN WITH ORGANICCOMPOUNDS OVER COPPER-CHROMIUM OXIDEAND NICKELCATALYSTS.Homer Adkins, Professor, University of Wisconsin. The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin, 1937, lx 178 pp., 4 figs., 15.5 x 24.5 cm., $3.00. This book makes no pretense of covering the field of hydrogenation catalysis. It is a summary of the author’s work in high-pressure hydrogenation and is “practically limited to the reaction of hydrogen at 100 to 400 atmospheres and 25 t o 260” over nickel or copper-chromium oxide catalysts with quantities of 1 g. t o 1 kg. of typical organic compounds.” The chapter headings are: Catalysts, Hydrogen Pressure, and Solvents; Apparatus and Procedure; Reactions with Hydrogen; Selective Hydrogenation and Hydrogenolysis. It is a discussion of practical catalysis, and gives excellent directions for catalytic hydrogenation under pressure, together with detailed descriptions of the apparatus and procedure used a t the University of Wisconsin. The mechanism of catalysis is not discussed. From the point of view of the reader who might be interested in entering the field of pressure hydrogenation i t would be desirable if the book had also included detailed descriptions of other types of pressure vessels and of other types of agitation. Then the reader, knowing the various possibilities of apparatus and procedure, could make his own choice. As it is, only one type of batch operation in the liquid phase is described, in excellent detail, to be sure. A description of continuous operation by pressure hydrogenation in the vapor phase could profitably have been included. However, Professor Adkins has admirably done the task he set out to do, namely, t o describe the apparatus and procedure which he uses and the experimental results which he and his co-workers have obtained. Of the sixty-three references listed in the index, forty-four refer to work done in the author’s laboratory. The reviewer believes that this book is a timely publication. For those already engaged in the study of catalytic hydrogenation, it is an excellent summary of the author’s interesting work. To those about to enter the field of pressure catalysis, it offers a modus operandi which has been carefully worked out and thoroughly tested. The revieR-er predicts that this book will be a power in the popularization of pressure technique, so whole-heartedly adopted by industry but neglected in academic circles, due to the mistaken idea voiced by Sabatier in the first years of the twentieth century that the high-pressure method required expensive apparatus and was dangerous.
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VLADIMIR N. IPATIEFF UNIVERSAL OILPRODUCTS COMPANT RIVERSIDE, ILLINOIS
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