Specmchimica Acfa, Vol. 50A. No. 14, pp. 23Y7-2398, WY4 Elsevier Science Ltd. Printed in Great Britain

0584~853Y/Y4 $7.00+0.(x)

BOOK REVIEWS

SURFACE CHARACTERIZATION ADVANCED POLYMERS edited by LUIGIA SABBATINI and PIER GIORGIO ZAMBONIN, 304 pp. Price DM 220.00.

This is an interesting book containing some very informative, well written chapters on the application of advanced spectroscopies in the surface characterization of polymers. Only one chapter specifically considers the surface characterization of advanced polymers (Chap. 5, XPS Analysis of Conducting Polymers, by Malitesta and Morea). The spectroscopies considered are (without exception) covered by recognized experts. What is notable is the small amount of space given to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), arguably the most versatile technique available for the analysis of polymer surfaces. This may be because excellent works already exist, e.g. see Practical Surface Analysis, Vol. 1 (Edited by BRIGGS and SEAH).

Whilst this is a specialized text, for the benefit of the newcomer, Desimoni and Zambonin have written a balanced overview, ‘Spectroscopies for Surface Characterization’. Much of the material herein is expanded upon in later chapters. For a multi-authored book the cross-referencing between chapters is (unusually) good. The following chapters deal with Electron-induced Vibrational Spectroscopy (Pireaux); Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (Reed and Vickerman); Low Energy Ion Scattering Spectrometry (Vargo et al.); Chemical Derivatisation for Use with XPS and SIMS (Chilkoti and Ratner); and Data Analysis (Sherwood). All have much to recommend them, and better still are not (obvious) repeats of information published elsewhere. These chapters deal mainly with the principles behind techniques and some applications of the techniques, not with problem solving issues.

All authors have adopted a non-mathematical approach, avoiding the details of theoretical analyses that can, and have been, applied elsewhere. This was much appreciated. Some chapters are particularly rich in information, e.g. the chapters by Pireaux and Reed and Vickerman, and like Christmas cake are very enjoyable, but cannot be consumed at one sitting. The honest assessment of derivatization methods by Chilkoti and Ratner is also well worth attention: the application of labels for functional group identification is attractive and widespread, although the justification for the use of some of these labels is particularly shaky. The chapter on Data Analysis represents a valuable update on what has been written elsewhere.

All chapters have been extensively referenced. The text is mercifully error-free and the quality of the figures is high throughout. No single chapter is so comprehensive that it can be considered as a definitive statement on the ‘state-of-the-art’ of any particular technique. Therefore, this book must be considered complementary to other works on Surface Analysis (Briggs and Seah) and Polymer Surfaces (Polymer Surfaces and Interfaces, Feast er al.). However, this book does represent a genuinely new contribution to the literature, and I can thoroughly recommend it to those in the field and to those interested in knowing more about the methods available for the characterization of polymer surfaces. It ought to be accessible to able final year undergraduate students and researchers both in academia and industry.

Department of Engineering Materials University of Shefield P.O. Box 600 Mappin Street Sheffield SI 4DlJ, U.K.

ROBERT SHORT

INTRODUCTION TO MODERN VIBRATIONAL SPECTROSCOPY by MAX DIEM, Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1993, 277 + xiii pp. incl. 3 Appendices. ISBN O-471-59584-5. Price f49.50.

This text in modern vibrational spectroscopy is intended for advanced undergraduates and aims to update the earlier, classic texts whilst providing a more comprehensive coverage of the subject matter than do several of the more specialized texts on practical or theoretical applications. In this way, Raman spectroscopy has been accorded a more prominent role than it has been in other works on vibrational spectroscopy.

There are nine chapters, set by a four-page Introduction and which include the areas of quantum mechanical concepts, polyatomic molecules, symmetry of molecular vibrations, introduction to Raman spectroscopy and a survey of the instrumentation used for the observation of vibrational spectra. The three specialized chapters, on which the author makes a claim for uniqueness and timeliness of production are concerned with the vibrational spectra of selected small molecules, biophysical applications of vibrational spectroscopy and vibrational optical activity.

In detail, the book suffers from several omissions. After a lead-in to the quantum mechanical aspects of spectroscopy and a solution of the vibrational Schredinger equation, the author dismisses IUPAC conventions and reverts to the cgs system of units, involving ergs, dynes and calories. The reviewer feels that this will almost certainly create confusion for the modern reader. Rotational and vibration-rotational transitions are discussed but are not developed further in spectroscopic applications. Likewise, non-linear Raman effects are mentioned but their application is only hinted at.

A large section of the book (Chapter 3; 45 pp.) concentrates on the development of force constant calculations, and normal coordinate analyses, followed by symmetry calculations in Chapter 4. A discussion of the classical theory of Raman scattering, the polarizability tensor and background fo non-linear Raman scattering and resonance Raman scattering appears in Chapter 5.

Chapter 6 on instrumentation is generally well written and is a survey of current techniques, but omits mention of vibrational microscopy, an expanding and powerful technique in the armoury of the molecular spectroscopist, particularly for forensic applications and especially for biological material.