118
Book reviews
bra involved in the calculation of both regressions is presented along with examples and a list of mathematics software package. Note, the statement, “concentration in millimoles vs. time” at the beginning of the mentioned section is erroneous; the correct statement in this part should be, “concentration in millimolar". Chapters 3 and 4 give details on how to build models for analysis of experimental data and how to solve the problem of correlation between parameters by using different approaches. These chapters contain a lot of useful information and some are very well written and informative, such as the Artur Sucheta section on error surfaces. Chapters 5–14 describe the application of non-linear computing modelling to a well selected variety of chemical and biochemical experimental techniques such as potentiometric titrations, electrochemical methods, FT-IR and NMR spectroscopy, X-ray scattering, ultracentrifugation and chromatographic analysis. BASIC subroutines and FORTRAN codes for use in non-liner regression analysis are also given. This book is a good reference for academics and students, even if they are not involved with non-linear computing modeling. P. Araujo
Capillary Electrophoresis in Chiral Analysis Bezhan Chankvetadze, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, 1997, pp. xiii+555, price £100.00, ISBN 0471-97415-3 The techniques of chiral analysis are particularly important in the pharmaceutical industry since the chirality of a molecule may considerably affect its physiological activity. Since the first successful gas–liquid chromatography (GLC) separation of the enantiorners of racemic N-trifluoroacetylamino acid esters three decades ago, liquid chromatography (LC) and capillary electrophoresis (CE) have also become important analytical techniques for chiral separations. The latter technique emerged in 1985 for such separations with its particular advantages of extremely high peak efficiencies and applicability to a wide range of analyte molecules. As a result CE has gained in popularity during the last decade and this has been assisted by its cost effectiveness — for example, capillaries and the
small quantities of chiral selectors (in milligrams) are relatively cheap when compared to chiral GLC and LC columns. Bezhan Chankvetadze’s volume on essentially the application of CE and related techniques such as micellar electrokinetics chromatography (MEKC) and capillary electrochromatography (CEC) to chiral separations is an extensive contribution to the literature and should find a place in research laboratories in industry, government and academia. After two introductory chapters on the basics of CE and chiral separations by CE, the author deals with different chiral selectors, devoting a chapter to each class, i.e. metal complexes (Chapter 3), cyclodextrins (Chapter 4), crown ethers (Chapter 6), macrocyclic antibiotics (Chapter 7) and polymers (Chapter 8). Chapter 5 deals with enantioseparation using MEKC, Chapter 9 with enantioseparation using CEC, Chapter 11 with enantioseparation using miscellaneous CE techniques and Chapter 10 with diastereomers. The final two chapters deal with enantiomer migration order in CE (Chapter 12) and quantitative analysis and other selected applications of chiral CE (Chapter 13). The individual chapters are well illustrated with appropriate figures, molecular structures and tables. Each chapter also contains an extensive reference collection and the volume is completed with a useful appendix listing chiral compounds resolved into enantiomers by various CE techniques. W.F. Smyth
The Use of Matrix Reference Materials in Environmental Analytical Processes A. Fajgelj, M. Parkany (Eds.), RSC, Cambridge, 1999, pp. x+206, ISBN 0-85404-739-5 This book is a collection of 14 papers presented at an international workshop on ‘Proper Use of Environmental Matrix Reference Materials’ that was held in Berlin during April 1999. It is the fourth book in a series that is based on the work of the IUPAC Working Party on ‘Harmonization of quality assurance schemes for analytical laboratories’. The papers broadly represent the reference material producer’s point of view of how their reference materials should be properly used as part of