A N A L Y T I C A L C H E M I S T R Y

The Messbauer Effect and Its Appli­cations In Chemistry. V. I. GoV-danskii. 119 pages. Consultants Bureau Enterprises, Inc., 227 West 17th St., New York, Ν. Υ. 10011. 1964. $18-50. Paperbound.

Reviewed by R. R. Edwards, De­partment of Chemistry, Carnegie In­stitute of Technology, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213

For the analytical chemist, the Mossbauer effect today occupies a posi­tion not unlike that of the nuclear mag­netic resonance phenomenon some ten years ago. Here is a new phenomenon, first observed by Rudolf Mossbauer in 1958, which has now been shown to be capable of telling the analytical chemist not only "what" and "how much" but also "in what chemical form." While, by its very nature, the Mossbauer ef­fect will never be applicable to all chemical systems, the range of elements exhibiting the effect is steadily expand­ing. Recent observations in several laboratories that the phenomenon can be observed employing radiations from coulomb-excited nuclei obviate the re­quirement for a long-lived radioactive parent, in principle opening the door for Mossbauer studies in a major frac­tion of the elements. The wealth of in­formation the phenomenon is yielding on the detailed structural character­istics of polyatomic systems—e.g., molecular, metallic, intermetallic, and even true and colloidal solutions—is be­coming legion.

This reviewer will not usurp the functions of Gol'danskii's publication by attempting to explain or to illustrate the usefulness of the Mossbauer effect in chemistry. The English translation does this job admirably within the brief scope of sixty-five pages, and it or its equivalent, if one is ever pro­duced, should be considered "must" reading for the enlightened chemist in the declining years of the seventh dec­ade of the 20th century. The transla­tion is lucid, and the author's coverage of the basic principles of the Mossbauer effect and its relationship to chemical phenomena and structure is thorough. Some errors, apparently purely arith­metical, have crept into some of the ta­llies, and the serious student employing the book should recalculate any of the values he wishes to use in connection with his own studies.

Undoubtedly, the book's worst fault is its age. The author attempted to correct this with a 1964 Supplement to his 1963 publication, and did an admi­

rable job on the important new liter­ature at that time. However, informa­tion on physical chemical, geochemical, and biochemical applications of the Mossbauer effect is burgeoning at a rate unprecedented in this reviewer's experi­ence, and any attempt at a review must necessarily be far from complete before it reaches even a lithoprinted page.

Those who have not discovered or, haplessly, do not wish to discover the Mossbauer effect will find between the covers of the Gol'danskii book a bonus translation of a paper entitled "Use of Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance in Chemical Crystallography" (52 pp.) by G. K. Semin and E. I. Fedin (Zhurnal Strukturnoi Khimii, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 252-267, July-August, 1960), whose ex­istence is neither acknowledged on the title page nor mentioned in the Preface or Introduction, and whose raison d'etre in this milieu is not at all clear. As a gratuity to the publishers, we hereby announce its availability.

Introduction to Mass Spectrometry and Its Applications. Robert II*. Riser, xii + 356 pages. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N. J. 07632. 1965. $10.50.

Reviewed by K. Biemann, Depart­ment of Chemistry, Massachusetts In­stitute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.

As stated in the preface, this book is intended to teach mass spectrometry to those who know very little or nothing about it. It seems that it will accom­plish this aim as far as the principles of mass spectrometry are concerned but the chapters on practical applications are rather biased. While the physical chemist will find many useful, and often very detailed, discussions of areas of in­terest to him, the organic chemist will not find out what mass spectrometry can do in his field.

Of the eleven chapters (Introduction, History, Basic Instrumentation, Instru­ments, Commercial Instruments, Typr-s of Ions in Mass Spectra, Theory of Mass Spectra, Energetics of Electron Impact Processes, Analytical Applica­tions, Other Uses of the Mass Spec­trometer, Some Frontiers) those con­cerning instrumentation, theory of mass spectra, and energetics of electron im­pact processes are the most thorough and useful ones. Particularly the last one represents a very up-to-date discus­sion of the experimental techniques as well as the physical meaning and conse­

quences of accurate ionization and ap­pearance potential measurements.

The areas of greatest expansion of mass spectrometry in the very recent years (and thus of particular interest to those who "know very little or nothing about it" but wish to find out) are only very scantily pointed out in the chapter entitled "Analytical Applications." After a thirteen-page discussion of the quantitative analysis of mixtures there are a mere three pages devoted to cor­relations of mass spectra and molecular structure and the example used is the spectrum of acetone.

The chapter on other uses is con­cerned with free radicals, high tempera­ture studies, half-life determinations on radioisotopes, abundance, and precise mass determinations. The last chapter (Some Frontiers) should provide stimu­lating reading to those in search of re­search problems in physical chemistry as it points out some areas presently in­vestigated in only a few laboratories as well as some that would provide a chal­lenge to future workers, such as the in­vestigation of the structure of the ions produced in a mass spectrometer.

The book concludes with a number of useful appendices (nuclidic masses and isotopic abundances, nomogram of metastable transitions, ionization cross sections, ionization potentials, and gen­eral bibliography).

The printing and make-up of the book are excellent and there are no ob­vious errors. It will probably find its way to the bookshelf of the physical and analytical chemist who is becoming interested in mass spectrometry as a tool in his research. The organic chem­ist should, however, not expect to find it an introduction to those aspects of mass spectrometry which are of interest to him (possibly with the exception of the chapter discussing commercially available instruments).

Practical Instrumental Analysis. J. Krugers, A.I.M. Keulemans. ix + 263 pages. American Elsevier Pub­lishing Co., Inc., 52 Vanderbilt Ave., New ' York, Ν. Υ. 10017. 1965. $11. Reviewed by Robert L. Bowman,

National Institutes of Health, Be-thesda, Md. 20014

In eighteen chapters averaging ten pages each, eighteen authors have pre­sented a general description of individ­ual instruments for chemical analysis.

The contributors are European, and

VOL. 38, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 1966 • 145 A

BOOK REVIEWS

NEW BOOKS

representative European instruments are generally used for examples. The coverage of variations and sources of instruments is generally inadequate and the section of each chapter devoted to future developments is not informative. References are totally inadequate and average five per chapter, almost entire­ly to books published 1959-1963 rather than current papers and reviews.

Atomic absorption flame photometry, fluorescence methods, and ESR are con­spicuous omissions. Instruments con­sidered are described in terms of their general capabilities so that one cannot evaluate the potential of the method for other than a few specific cases.

In view of the superficial coverage, omissions of several important instru­ments and inadequate references, it would appear that the book has very limited value except to an individual with some scientific curiosity who would like to know a little bit about in­struments in current use. A student or prospective customer could find more current useful information about more instruments by reading pertinent pa­pers in recent issues of ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY and inspecting the adver­tisements for recent innovations. The current activity in chemical instrumen­tation development is so great that

without the fundamental principles and performance details, the book gives lit­tle insight into the present status of any of the instruments discussed. The pre­face advises that no attempt is made to give the reader a "profound fundamen­tal insight" into the various methods.

Application of instrumental analysis in process analysis is covered in a six-page chapter that outlines three specific determinations without evalua­tion or comparison with other methods and of the five references cited one is a private communication! Applications in clinical chemistry are superficially described in seven pages.

The appendix gives step by step laboratory procedures for performing the analysis of an aspirin-phenacetin-caffeine tablet by absorption spectrom­etry, the determination of IR spectrum of an unknown distillate and the deter­mination of absolute configuration by spectropolarimetry, procedures that are ludicrous in the light of the content and depth of presentation of the rest of the text. Die Komplexometrische Titrations.

Gerold Schwarzenbach, Hermann Flaschka. xvi + 839 pages. Ferdi­nand Enke Verlag, Hasenbergsteige S, 7000 Stuttgart 1, Germany. 1965. Paper DM 48; cloth DM 53.

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a s u b s i d i a r y of B O W M A R I N S T R U M E N T C O R P O R A T I O N

Reviewed by Henry Preiser, De­partment of Chemistry, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.

This volume is an appropriate com­memoration of the twentieth anniver­sary of the first publication of the use of alkali salts of NTA and EDTA as ti­trants for metal cations, The develop­ment of complexometric titrations, which has proven to be one of the most dramatic developments in analytical chemistry, is described by Professor Schwarzenbach as a byproduct ("Uner-wartete Frucht") of his systematic study of the metal complex formation of amino acids. The entire develop­ment of complexometric titrations af­fords an excellent illustration of the vi­tality of the interaction between theo­retical and practical aspects of analyti­cal chemistry. Although the first titra­tions depended on the pH-effect (change in pH accompanying chela­tion), the development of metallo-chromic indicators followed soon after the accidental discovery of the color change in murexide induced by calcium ions. The determination of water hard­ness with EDTA using Eriochrome Black Τ was first reported in 1948.

Ten years after the development of this exciting new field, Professor Schwarzenbach published the first edi­tion of "Complexometric Titrations," a book of about one hundred pages and 181 references. Three further editions of the book were published in rapid succession in response to its great popu­lar acceptance. For this fifth edition, Professor Schwarzenbach is joined by Professor Hermann Flaschka, who has contributed in a productive and inge­nious way to the development of com­plexometric titrations, in a happy col­laboration. This book belongs in the hands of all analytical chemists.

The volume is divided in two parts: The first deals with general principles of complexometric titrations and in­cludes chapters on titration with com-plexing agents, aminopolycarboxylic acids, complex formation and stability, complexometric titration curves, color and fluorescence indicators in complex-ometry, color changes of metallochromic indicators, instrumental end point de­tections, types of titration and their precision and selectivity. In these 24 pages is presented a clear as well as thorough discussion of all phases of complexometric titrations.

The second part of the book, com­prising another 124 pages, deals with the practical application of complexo­metric titrations to the determination of nearly all of the metallic as well as to some of the nonmetallic elements. In addition to clear and detailed proce­dures, there is a wealth of discussion of

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the methods in the light of the pre­viously developed principles.

The authors are to be commended for producing this excellent volume.

NEW BOOKS Table of Meta-Stable Transitions:

For Use in Mass Spectrometry. J. H. Beynon, R. A. Saunders, and A. E. Williams, xix + 788 pages. American Elsevier Publishing Co., Inc., 52 Vanderbilt Ave., New York, Ν. Υ. 10017. 1965. $16.50.

These tables have been calculated on an English Electric KDF.9 computer and printed on an Analex Series 5 line printer. The introduction is given in English, French, German, and Russian.

Macromolecules in Solution. Herbert Morawetz, xvi + 495 pages. Inter-science Publishers. 605 Third Ave., New York, Ν. Υ. 10001. 1965. $16.50.

This volume presents a discussion on the distribution functions of chain lengths and composition as well as con­formation, solubility, equilibrium prop­erties and frictional properties of macromolecules. Of especial interest to the analytical chemist is the chapter on methodology which covers absorption, ultraviolet, infrared, NMR, and fluo­rescence spectroscopy, optical activity, light scattering, and x-ray scattering.

Analytical Chemistry of Potassium. / . M. Koremnan. viii + 242 pages. Daniel Davey & Co., Inc., 257 Park Ave., South, New York, Ν. Υ. 10010. 1965. $14.

This monograph, translated from the Russian, serves primarily as a review of the literature of potassium. The his­tory, descriptive chemistry, reactions, and methods of analysis are described briefly. Of the nearly 3000 references cited, 587 refer to publications in Russian.

Quantitative Electron Microprobe Analysis. Roger Theisen. 170 pages. Springer-Verlag New York Inc., 175 Fifth Ave., New York, Ν. Υ. 10010. 1965. $6.

This volume discusses in twenty-four pages, the fundamentals of microprobe analysis, including the instrumentation, analytical procedure, and correction calculation. The remaining pages consist of tables of the characteristic wavelength and excitation potentials for K, L, M series, electron penetration factor, and x-ray mass absorption co­efficients.

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