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Atomic and nuclear methods in fossil energy research
trendsVI analytual chemzrtty,vol 2, .
M
XV
8, I!?83
cobalt, nickel and molybdenum m catalysts, electron-probe analysis of fly ash particles, asphaltene structure, and geological factors which control mineral matter m coal For orgamc geochemists attracted to a book with a title such as this to encounter 26 papers before arnvmg at a chapter descnbmg a techmque many orgamc geochemists consider extremely important m fossil-energy research, will probably prove to be a httle too frustratmg for them - to say the least However, the final section contams 8 papers under the heading ‘Characterization of Species m Fossil Fuels’ The first paper is concerned with the use of gas chromatography, and more importantly, GC-MS m 011 shale retort water In view of the
powerful nature of the latter techmque, and its widespread application and use m petroleum research m particular, I am surprised that it 1s only mentioned m this paper and another one on the Alberta Tar sands One can only wonder if the paper of another plenary speaker mentioned m the mtroduction, namely B R Simoneit, well known m this field, suffered the same fate as Retcofsky’s paper I felt that this section would also have benelitted greatly from an overview on the apphcation of GC-MS to fossil-energy research The remammg papers m this section were concerned with radionuchdes m airborne effluents from power stations, secular equihbrmm of radium m Western coal and electron-beam ionization for coal fly-ash pre-
Disappointing revised text to Hagh Perfoormance Lzqutd Chromatography 2nd Edn, by R J Hamilton and P A Sewell, Chapman and Hall, 1982. Ll3.50 (vu + 248pages) ISBN 0 412 23430 0 Introductwn
A major impetus to the widespread acceptance and apphcation of a new instrumental techmque is the avarlability of broadly-based mtroductory texts, which bring together the concepts m research papers and specialized monographs for the newcomer to the field These texts play an important role m presentmg a balanced view of the topic m which the mdividual high pomts are weighted to reflect their importance to the overall method Inevitably, this means that they may not reflect the frontiers of the sublect, but primarily those areas which have gamed a consensus of acceptance Therem often hes their value The upsurge of HPLC m the mid-1970s was well supported m this way by a range of texts The rapid developments at the time, coupled with the delay between writing and pubhcation, has left many of these works with a dated viewpomt As a consequence, now that the basic method has settled, a number of these ongmal texts are bemg revised The present volume, by Hamilton and Sewell, is a second edition of their earher 1977 book of the same title The book leads the reader through a general theory of chromatography, equipment, stationary and mobile
phases, development of a chromatogram and preparative hquid chromatography The final chapter IS a compilation ofmethods for the analysis of a range of different samples, mcludmg pharmaceuticals, food chemicals, and morgamc compounds Much of the book relies on the earlier edition, many of the same figures and tables bemg used The authors have made extensive use of manufacturers’ and trade literature for references, figures and examples, few origmal recent research papers or monographs being cited as sources of further details, and even fewer recent papers Although the preface introduces the book with the comments that ‘ninety percent of separations are now performed usmg chemically bonded microparticulate packmgs m detectors, the mtroduction of electrochemical The use of ion-pair chromatography has increased at the expense of ion-exchange’, the most disappomtmg aspect of the book is its failure to cover these important areas m any depth Less than 2 pages are devoted to ion-pair chromatography. In the chapter on detectors, less than a page 1s devoted to all the electrochemical methods, nearly half bemg a discussion of the photochemical conductivity detector, and glassy-carbon electrodes are not mentioned at all In contrast the movmg-wire detector receives over a page, even though it is no longer manufactured Much of the discussion of columns and mobile phases is rather confusmg,
cipitators In conclusion therefore, I feel that the book will be of most use and mterest to geochemists or analytical chemists mvolved m trace-element determmation m coals I do not thmk that this book can be recommended to the organic geochemist who might be tempted to buy it to read about the latest organic geochemical methodology m fossil energy research The book is reasonably priced by today’s standards and is well-produced with hardly any typographical errors R P PHILP Dr R P Phrlp zs tn the CSIRO Dtmsron of Fosszl Fuels, P 0 Box 136, North Ryde, NSW 2113, Australra
with only less than half a page (out of 18) of the latter being devoted for reversed-phase to solvents chromatography, the rest discussmg and ionexchange normal phase, exclusion chromatography One ofthe most useful features IS the exhaustive compilation of packing materials and their properties However, much of the book 1s substantially unchanged from the first edition, with extra sections being added, rather than an overall revision, with the result that much of the material is outdated For example, m the apphcations section many of the examples use pelhcular bead materials or ton-exchange resms, hquid-hquid (non-bonded) phases receive considerable coverage and a table of detector characteristics comes from the 1974 rather than the 2nd (1979) edition of Kirkland and Snyder’s book Overall, this book is one of the least successful of those currently available, it is disappomtmg, not so much because it doesn’t show the state of the art, but because so much of it is a residue of the earlier, rather confused, formative days and as such does not provide a clear mtroduction for the presentday newcomer to hquid chromatography A number of the comments m the book will raise eyebrows, not least that there is only ‘one phase (the stationary phase) m GC’ R M SMITH Dr Smrth as a lecturer m the Department of Ch.emt.stry,Loughborough Unwerstty of Technology, Loughborough, L.eus , UK
M
XV
8, I!?83
cobalt, nickel and molybdenum m catalysts, electron-probe analysis of fly ash particles, asphaltene structure, and geological factors which control mineral matter m coal For orgamc geochemists attracted to a book with a title such as this to encounter 26 papers before arnvmg at a chapter descnbmg a techmque many orgamc geochemists consider extremely important m fossil-energy research, will probably prove to be a httle too frustratmg for them - to say the least However, the final section contams 8 papers under the heading ‘Characterization of Species m Fossil Fuels’ The first paper is concerned with the use of gas chromatography, and more importantly, GC-MS m 011 shale retort water In view of the
powerful nature of the latter techmque, and its widespread application and use m petroleum research m particular, I am surprised that it 1s only mentioned m this paper and another one on the Alberta Tar sands One can only wonder if the paper of another plenary speaker mentioned m the mtroduction, namely B R Simoneit, well known m this field, suffered the same fate as Retcofsky’s paper I felt that this section would also have benelitted greatly from an overview on the apphcation of GC-MS to fossil-energy research The remammg papers m this section were concerned with radionuchdes m airborne effluents from power stations, secular equihbrmm of radium m Western coal and electron-beam ionization for coal fly-ash pre-
Disappointing revised text to Hagh Perfoormance Lzqutd Chromatography 2nd Edn, by R J Hamilton and P A Sewell, Chapman and Hall, 1982. Ll3.50 (vu + 248pages) ISBN 0 412 23430 0 Introductwn
A major impetus to the widespread acceptance and apphcation of a new instrumental techmque is the avarlability of broadly-based mtroductory texts, which bring together the concepts m research papers and specialized monographs for the newcomer to the field These texts play an important role m presentmg a balanced view of the topic m which the mdividual high pomts are weighted to reflect their importance to the overall method Inevitably, this means that they may not reflect the frontiers of the sublect, but primarily those areas which have gamed a consensus of acceptance Therem often hes their value The upsurge of HPLC m the mid-1970s was well supported m this way by a range of texts The rapid developments at the time, coupled with the delay between writing and pubhcation, has left many of these works with a dated viewpomt As a consequence, now that the basic method has settled, a number of these ongmal texts are bemg revised The present volume, by Hamilton and Sewell, is a second edition of their earher 1977 book of the same title The book leads the reader through a general theory of chromatography, equipment, stationary and mobile
phases, development of a chromatogram and preparative hquid chromatography The final chapter IS a compilation ofmethods for the analysis of a range of different samples, mcludmg pharmaceuticals, food chemicals, and morgamc compounds Much of the book relies on the earlier edition, many of the same figures and tables bemg used The authors have made extensive use of manufacturers’ and trade literature for references, figures and examples, few origmal recent research papers or monographs being cited as sources of further details, and even fewer recent papers Although the preface introduces the book with the comments that ‘ninety percent of separations are now performed usmg chemically bonded microparticulate packmgs m detectors, the mtroduction of electrochemical The use of ion-pair chromatography has increased at the expense of ion-exchange’, the most disappomtmg aspect of the book is its failure to cover these important areas m any depth Less than 2 pages are devoted to ion-pair chromatography. In the chapter on detectors, less than a page 1s devoted to all the electrochemical methods, nearly half bemg a discussion of the photochemical conductivity detector, and glassy-carbon electrodes are not mentioned at all In contrast the movmg-wire detector receives over a page, even though it is no longer manufactured Much of the discussion of columns and mobile phases is rather confusmg,
cipitators In conclusion therefore, I feel that the book will be of most use and mterest to geochemists or analytical chemists mvolved m trace-element determmation m coals I do not thmk that this book can be recommended to the organic geochemist who might be tempted to buy it to read about the latest organic geochemical methodology m fossil energy research The book is reasonably priced by today’s standards and is well-produced with hardly any typographical errors R P PHILP Dr R P Phrlp zs tn the CSIRO Dtmsron of Fosszl Fuels, P 0 Box 136, North Ryde, NSW 2113, Australra
with only less than half a page (out of 18) of the latter being devoted for reversed-phase to solvents chromatography, the rest discussmg and ionexchange normal phase, exclusion chromatography One ofthe most useful features IS the exhaustive compilation of packing materials and their properties However, much of the book 1s substantially unchanged from the first edition, with extra sections being added, rather than an overall revision, with the result that much of the material is outdated For example, m the apphcations section many of the examples use pelhcular bead materials or ton-exchange resms, hquid-hquid (non-bonded) phases receive considerable coverage and a table of detector characteristics comes from the 1974 rather than the 2nd (1979) edition of Kirkland and Snyder’s book Overall, this book is one of the least successful of those currently available, it is disappomtmg, not so much because it doesn’t show the state of the art, but because so much of it is a residue of the earlier, rather confused, formative days and as such does not provide a clear mtroduction for the presentday newcomer to hquid chromatography A number of the comments m the book will raise eyebrows, not least that there is only ‘one phase (the stationary phase) m GC’ R M SMITH Dr Smrth as a lecturer m the Department of Ch.emt.stry,Loughborough Unwerstty of Technology, Loughborough, L.eus , UK