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Gmelin handbook of inorganic chemistry. Uranium supplement vol. C4: Uranium dioxide, preparation and crystallographic properties.
1800
Book Reviews
material from which the student can make his own list. The clear style and organisation of the text, coupled with extensive cross-referencing and the good index, will make this book the natural first point of reference for a student writing an essay or a literature project. Equally one hopes that manylecturers’sets ofnotes will beenhancedfrom this source. What about the balance of topics? Here it is interesting to compare the amount of space given to certain areas in some well-known texts (Table 1).It is clear that the present book gives proportionately far more coverage to maingroup elements, particularly to non-metals such as boron and sulphur. This is certainly consistent with the present resurgence of interest in main-group chemistry, and compensates to some extent for the emphasis on transition-metal chemistry in some modern text-books. It
Gmelin Handbook of Inorganic Chemistry. Uranium Supplement Vol. C4 : Uranium Dioxide, Preparation and Crystallographic Properties. Published by the Gm_elin Institute
for
~~~~~anic ~)-_____Chamintrv ________-__ ~ of&
Max
Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, Springer, Berlin, 8th edition, 1984, xii+ 140 pp., DM544. This book on the preparation and crystallography of uranium dioxide is one of at least 27 supplementary volumes on uranium. The series, when completed in the near future, will comprise an authoritative and exhaustive account on all aspects of uranium chemistry. Uranium chemists with ready access to the series are in a particularly fortunate position and will be delighted by the excellent production qualities, the first-class use of English, and the ,...+“*“,A:.., “,.~,,.-.,“l.:.. “urJr~llull,g J~Il”IclIJ‘I+J. Uranium dioxide is the most important compound in nuclear technology because it is the fuel of nearly all water nuclear power reactors. Volume C4 deals only with the
suggests too that “Greenwood and Earnshaw” is complementary to the latest edition of “Cotton and Wilkinson”, rather that directly overlapping with it, and that students will have to buy one or the other, while needing access to both. To sum up, this is a notable and refreshingly different new text, which can significantly influence the future direction of the subject. In many ways, it is a new Sidgwick for the 198Os,which is high praise indeed.
Department of Chemistry Queen Mary College Mile End Road London El 4NS U.K.
B. J. AYLET’T
preparation and crystallography while two others, C5 and C6, will deal with the physical and chemical properties. Two-thirds of volume C4 is devoted to the preparation of uranium dioxide and the production of pellets and other shapes. All of the well-characterised methods of preparation are included, the whole is well-illustrated, and contains 660 references. The crystallographic properties are also properly covered and no important results appear to be omitted. The literature is comprehensively covered to the end of 1982 and important results since then are also included. One would normally expect a very large library to buy the entire Supplement but for specialised libraries, such as those covering nuclear technology, a selection from the many volumes would be well-worth considering, notwithstanding the high volume cost. Department of Chemistry University of Surrey Guildford
J. I. BULLOCK
Book Reviews
material from which the student can make his own list. The clear style and organisation of the text, coupled with extensive cross-referencing and the good index, will make this book the natural first point of reference for a student writing an essay or a literature project. Equally one hopes that manylecturers’sets ofnotes will beenhancedfrom this source. What about the balance of topics? Here it is interesting to compare the amount of space given to certain areas in some well-known texts (Table 1).It is clear that the present book gives proportionately far more coverage to maingroup elements, particularly to non-metals such as boron and sulphur. This is certainly consistent with the present resurgence of interest in main-group chemistry, and compensates to some extent for the emphasis on transition-metal chemistry in some modern text-books. It
Gmelin Handbook of Inorganic Chemistry. Uranium Supplement Vol. C4 : Uranium Dioxide, Preparation and Crystallographic Properties. Published by the Gm_elin Institute
for
~~~~~anic ~)-_____Chamintrv ________-__ ~ of&
Max
Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, Springer, Berlin, 8th edition, 1984, xii+ 140 pp., DM544. This book on the preparation and crystallography of uranium dioxide is one of at least 27 supplementary volumes on uranium. The series, when completed in the near future, will comprise an authoritative and exhaustive account on all aspects of uranium chemistry. Uranium chemists with ready access to the series are in a particularly fortunate position and will be delighted by the excellent production qualities, the first-class use of English, and the ,...+“*“,A:.., “,.~,,.-.,“l.:.. “urJr~llull,g J~Il”IclIJ‘I+J. Uranium dioxide is the most important compound in nuclear technology because it is the fuel of nearly all water nuclear power reactors. Volume C4 deals only with the
suggests too that “Greenwood and Earnshaw” is complementary to the latest edition of “Cotton and Wilkinson”, rather that directly overlapping with it, and that students will have to buy one or the other, while needing access to both. To sum up, this is a notable and refreshingly different new text, which can significantly influence the future direction of the subject. In many ways, it is a new Sidgwick for the 198Os,which is high praise indeed.
Department of Chemistry Queen Mary College Mile End Road London El 4NS U.K.
B. J. AYLET’T
preparation and crystallography while two others, C5 and C6, will deal with the physical and chemical properties. Two-thirds of volume C4 is devoted to the preparation of uranium dioxide and the production of pellets and other shapes. All of the well-characterised methods of preparation are included, the whole is well-illustrated, and contains 660 references. The crystallographic properties are also properly covered and no important results appear to be omitted. The literature is comprehensively covered to the end of 1982 and important results since then are also included. One would normally expect a very large library to buy the entire Supplement but for specialised libraries, such as those covering nuclear technology, a selection from the many volumes would be well-worth considering, notwithstanding the high volume cost. Department of Chemistry University of Surrey Guildford
J. I. BULLOCK