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Gas and liquid chromatography in analytical chemistry
348 phy, interfacing to MS and not least the cost savings that microscale LC can offer. Within most chromatography laboratories however, the established use of conventional columns and most of all ‘conventional’ detectors has precluded a wide acceptance of the technique. For those people who do wish to embrace this approach to chromatography I would recommend this as an excellent starting point. J.D. Baty Senior Lecturer in Biochemical Medicine, University of Dundee, DDI 9SY. UK
***** Electrophoresis
‘88
Sixth Meeting of The International Electrophoresis Edited by Claus Schafer-Nielsen VCH, Weinheim, 1988, 502 pp., &51.
Society 4th-7th July, 1988.
This volume is a report of the proceedings of the sixth meeting of the International Electrophoresis Society held in Copenhagen in 1988. This volume is published by the protein laboratory of the University of Copenhagen and consists of some fifty-five papers, divided into seven topics and contains five-hundred pages. They encompass the whole field of electrophoresis, starting off with the theoretical developments in electrophoresis, moving on to isoelectric focusing and many other methodological techniques. Many of the presentations will appear as full papers in other primary journals as they are essentially reports on research studies. I think this volume would be of more interest to the research biochemist, but may be of limited use to the practising clinical chemist. Very few of the papers are directly related to the practice of clinical chemistry; I feel that this volume would be a very useful one to have in a departmental library, but perhaps would not be one that I would purchase myself for constant use. The editor, however, has to be complimented in his drawing together of all these individual papers to give a coherent whole and in getting a similar style of writing throughout the whole volume. P.E.G. Mitchell Consultant Chemical Pathologist, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee DDI 9SY, UK
***** Gas and Liquid Chromatography
in Analytical
Chemistry
Edited by Roger M. Smith Wiley, Chichester, UK, 392 pp., E60 This book is the result of the author’s substantial experience in lecturing on chromatography as a part of instrumental analysis to undergraduate and postgraduate students. It is intended for senior undergraduates, postgraduates and technical staff in industry. Unfortunately the price and the content may not place it high on the priorities of the first two groups and I am afraid the industrial user and experienced chromatographers may find it rather dated. A chapter on basic concepts of chromatography is followed by chapters on gas liquid chromatography which deal in turn with instrumentation, columns and stationary phases, detectors, sample identification and quantification and finally special techniques in gas chromatography which is mainly concerned with sample derivatisation.
349 Liquid chromatography is introduced with a general description of the common separation procedures. There are chapters on TLC, HPLC (largely instrumentation), detection, separation methods, quantitation, pre and post column reactions, data handling and future developments. The book concludes its pages with two appendices covering sources of chromatographic methods, applications and practical problems. The experienced chromatographer will find little new within the book. I was particularly disappointed with the substantial use of manufacturers’ data as opposed to literature papers. Several chromatograms are not attributed to anyone. Some are taken from the books that equipment manufacturers themselves produce as guides to the techniques. While such data serve a reasonable purpose in explaining the construction of an F.1.D detector or a splitless injection system, manufacturer’s chromatograms are hardly typical of a true chromatographer’s problems and are of course readily available at no charge. The dangers of such an approach are that while these chromatograms may show an elegant separation of for example a drug mixture, a true laboratory sample may contain metabolites and other interfering compounds. I would have preferred a more critical appraisal of the technique. Several chromatograms are shown without a time scale. The nature of the book reflects its use as the basis of a teaching program. I feel that some data, for example the packed column gas chromatography of fatty acids is somewhat dated (1976) and the increasing role of capillary GLC and GC-MS could have been expanded. I appreciate that in a book of this type the role of ancillary techniques such as GC-MS and LC-MS is difficult to cover in more than general terms, but I feel the former techniques especially deserved a more substantial treatment now that bench top instruments are more common. The mass spectral data presented in the book are taken from a manufacturer’s handout and implies that the GC-MS technique routinely gives accurate mass measurement, although the data shown in the figure are not discussed. I find it odd that this combined technique is placed last in a list which begins with the GC-human nose as a detector, and then lists GC-radiochemical, GC-AAS and GC-IR before GC-MS. I would have welcomed a more mathematical treatment of detector response and sensitivity. In common with most of the book, the approach the author has adopted is to give a simple statement of the basic techniques/theory then provide a bibliography at the end of each chapter for more detailed information. While this is perhaps logical within the time restrictions of a taught course, it tends to detract from the significance of the current presentation, especially as many of the references quoted are somewhat dated. This is in part rectified by the inclusion of a recent bibliography in a section on sources of chromatographic methods. The second part of the book covers the major aspects of liquid chromatography, TLC and a chapter on data handling techniques and future developments. The figures and chromatograms used to illustate the techniques are again mainly taken from manufacturers data. The presentation is clear and concise, but I fear an approach of this type falls between two stools. Experienced chromatographers have quite simply ‘seen it all before’. The beginner will undoubtedly get some information from the book but I am a little worried that the rather superficial treatment will still leave them unaware of the principles (and pitfalls) involved in setting up and evaluating chromatographic separations. J.D. Baty Senior Lecturer in Biochemical Medicine, University of Dundee DDI 9SY, UK
***** Electrophoresis
‘88
Sixth Meeting of The International Electrophoresis Edited by Claus Schafer-Nielsen VCH, Weinheim, 1988, 502 pp., &51.
Society 4th-7th July, 1988.
This volume is a report of the proceedings of the sixth meeting of the International Electrophoresis Society held in Copenhagen in 1988. This volume is published by the protein laboratory of the University of Copenhagen and consists of some fifty-five papers, divided into seven topics and contains five-hundred pages. They encompass the whole field of electrophoresis, starting off with the theoretical developments in electrophoresis, moving on to isoelectric focusing and many other methodological techniques. Many of the presentations will appear as full papers in other primary journals as they are essentially reports on research studies. I think this volume would be of more interest to the research biochemist, but may be of limited use to the practising clinical chemist. Very few of the papers are directly related to the practice of clinical chemistry; I feel that this volume would be a very useful one to have in a departmental library, but perhaps would not be one that I would purchase myself for constant use. The editor, however, has to be complimented in his drawing together of all these individual papers to give a coherent whole and in getting a similar style of writing throughout the whole volume. P.E.G. Mitchell Consultant Chemical Pathologist, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee DDI 9SY, UK
***** Gas and Liquid Chromatography
in Analytical
Chemistry
Edited by Roger M. Smith Wiley, Chichester, UK, 392 pp., E60 This book is the result of the author’s substantial experience in lecturing on chromatography as a part of instrumental analysis to undergraduate and postgraduate students. It is intended for senior undergraduates, postgraduates and technical staff in industry. Unfortunately the price and the content may not place it high on the priorities of the first two groups and I am afraid the industrial user and experienced chromatographers may find it rather dated. A chapter on basic concepts of chromatography is followed by chapters on gas liquid chromatography which deal in turn with instrumentation, columns and stationary phases, detectors, sample identification and quantification and finally special techniques in gas chromatography which is mainly concerned with sample derivatisation.
349 Liquid chromatography is introduced with a general description of the common separation procedures. There are chapters on TLC, HPLC (largely instrumentation), detection, separation methods, quantitation, pre and post column reactions, data handling and future developments. The book concludes its pages with two appendices covering sources of chromatographic methods, applications and practical problems. The experienced chromatographer will find little new within the book. I was particularly disappointed with the substantial use of manufacturers’ data as opposed to literature papers. Several chromatograms are not attributed to anyone. Some are taken from the books that equipment manufacturers themselves produce as guides to the techniques. While such data serve a reasonable purpose in explaining the construction of an F.1.D detector or a splitless injection system, manufacturer’s chromatograms are hardly typical of a true chromatographer’s problems and are of course readily available at no charge. The dangers of such an approach are that while these chromatograms may show an elegant separation of for example a drug mixture, a true laboratory sample may contain metabolites and other interfering compounds. I would have preferred a more critical appraisal of the technique. Several chromatograms are shown without a time scale. The nature of the book reflects its use as the basis of a teaching program. I feel that some data, for example the packed column gas chromatography of fatty acids is somewhat dated (1976) and the increasing role of capillary GLC and GC-MS could have been expanded. I appreciate that in a book of this type the role of ancillary techniques such as GC-MS and LC-MS is difficult to cover in more than general terms, but I feel the former techniques especially deserved a more substantial treatment now that bench top instruments are more common. The mass spectral data presented in the book are taken from a manufacturer’s handout and implies that the GC-MS technique routinely gives accurate mass measurement, although the data shown in the figure are not discussed. I find it odd that this combined technique is placed last in a list which begins with the GC-human nose as a detector, and then lists GC-radiochemical, GC-AAS and GC-IR before GC-MS. I would have welcomed a more mathematical treatment of detector response and sensitivity. In common with most of the book, the approach the author has adopted is to give a simple statement of the basic techniques/theory then provide a bibliography at the end of each chapter for more detailed information. While this is perhaps logical within the time restrictions of a taught course, it tends to detract from the significance of the current presentation, especially as many of the references quoted are somewhat dated. This is in part rectified by the inclusion of a recent bibliography in a section on sources of chromatographic methods. The second part of the book covers the major aspects of liquid chromatography, TLC and a chapter on data handling techniques and future developments. The figures and chromatograms used to illustate the techniques are again mainly taken from manufacturers data. The presentation is clear and concise, but I fear an approach of this type falls between two stools. Experienced chromatographers have quite simply ‘seen it all before’. The beginner will undoubtedly get some information from the book but I am a little worried that the rather superficial treatment will still leave them unaware of the principles (and pitfalls) involved in setting up and evaluating chromatographic separations. J.D. Baty Senior Lecturer in Biochemical Medicine, University of Dundee DDI 9SY, UK