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Instability Constants of complex compounds
J. Inorg. Nucl. Chem., 1961,Vol. 21, pp. 190 to 191. PergamonPress Ltd. Printed in Northern Ireland
BOOK REVIEWS
K. B. YATSIMIRSKII and V. P. VASIL'EV. Translated by D. A. PATTERSON. Instability Constants of Complex Compounds. viii "- 218 pp. Pergamon Press Ltd., Oxford, 1960. 42s. IT is difficult to know how to assess this book which consists of some 83 pages of descriptive material dealing with various theoretical and practical aspects of complex formation in solution followed by 120 pages of tables of stability constants. When it first appeared in Russian it was the first book in this field and the tables of data represented a considerable effort of compilation in that the literature was covered up to 1954 and partly to 1956. However the selection of data was somewhat arbitrary and the whole collection is now superseded by the comprehensive and authoritative tables published by the Chemical Society (Tables of Stability Constants Vol. I (Organic Ligands), Vol. II (Inorganic Ligands); Chem. Soc. Special Publications No. 6 and 7, 1957 and 1958). The book ought therefore to be judged on the qualities of the earlier chapters. Chapter I (12 pages) outlines the mathematical conception of step-complex formation. Methods available for the experimental determination of step-constants are described in Chapter II under two main headings, viz. methods dependent upon solubility, distribution, ion-exchange, potentiometry and polarography, kinetic and "freezing methods", indicator, biological, and radioactive methods. The second group describes spectrophotometric, conductivity, cryoscopic and calorimetric methods. While these accounts will be of interest to the specialist they convey little information of the practical problems involved and emphasise insufficiently the factors which would cause one method to be preferred to another. Chapter 11I is devoted to a consideration of the thermodynamics of complex formation and Chapter IV, unquestionably the most valuable in this little monograph, is an interesting, if rather limited, account of factors determining the stability of complexes in solution which is specially significant for being the first review to have taken account of ligand field-theory and the effects of :r-bonding. The translation throughout is excellent and it is a matter for regret that this moderatcly priced book should not have appeared on the English market until the impact of its novelty had been dissipated by other works in this language. H. IRVING
M. STACEV, J. C. TATLOW and A . G . SHARPE: Advances in Fluorine Chemistry. Butterworth's Publication, London, 1960. 45s.
203 -i vii pp.
Muse,race This article contains a lot of useful information which is not embraced by the volume title, i.e. A D V A N C E S in Fluorine Chemistry and is more properly described as a review. The author could have been very much more economical in his text--terseness with clarity leads to a far more stimulating text as is readily seen if Sharpe's article is compare.d with Musgrave's. The latter reminds me somewhat of Mellor. The sections concerned with the preparations of halogen fluorides serve to give the newcomer to the field an adequate indication of the state of knowledge. However, those on the uses of fluoric halides in organic chemistry are rather disappointing in that vague process details are presented where scientific results are expected. Sharpe Sharpe's article starts off in good style and the reader is left in no doubt as to what he is in for in the way of a chemical "treat". The article deals factually, concisely and in a very readable manner with advances in the fluoride chemistry of transition metals which have taken place in the last decade. 190
BOOK REVIEWS
K. B. YATSIMIRSKII and V. P. VASIL'EV. Translated by D. A. PATTERSON. Instability Constants of Complex Compounds. viii "- 218 pp. Pergamon Press Ltd., Oxford, 1960. 42s. IT is difficult to know how to assess this book which consists of some 83 pages of descriptive material dealing with various theoretical and practical aspects of complex formation in solution followed by 120 pages of tables of stability constants. When it first appeared in Russian it was the first book in this field and the tables of data represented a considerable effort of compilation in that the literature was covered up to 1954 and partly to 1956. However the selection of data was somewhat arbitrary and the whole collection is now superseded by the comprehensive and authoritative tables published by the Chemical Society (Tables of Stability Constants Vol. I (Organic Ligands), Vol. II (Inorganic Ligands); Chem. Soc. Special Publications No. 6 and 7, 1957 and 1958). The book ought therefore to be judged on the qualities of the earlier chapters. Chapter I (12 pages) outlines the mathematical conception of step-complex formation. Methods available for the experimental determination of step-constants are described in Chapter II under two main headings, viz. methods dependent upon solubility, distribution, ion-exchange, potentiometry and polarography, kinetic and "freezing methods", indicator, biological, and radioactive methods. The second group describes spectrophotometric, conductivity, cryoscopic and calorimetric methods. While these accounts will be of interest to the specialist they convey little information of the practical problems involved and emphasise insufficiently the factors which would cause one method to be preferred to another. Chapter 11I is devoted to a consideration of the thermodynamics of complex formation and Chapter IV, unquestionably the most valuable in this little monograph, is an interesting, if rather limited, account of factors determining the stability of complexes in solution which is specially significant for being the first review to have taken account of ligand field-theory and the effects of :r-bonding. The translation throughout is excellent and it is a matter for regret that this moderatcly priced book should not have appeared on the English market until the impact of its novelty had been dissipated by other works in this language. H. IRVING
M. STACEV, J. C. TATLOW and A . G . SHARPE: Advances in Fluorine Chemistry. Butterworth's Publication, London, 1960. 45s.
203 -i vii pp.
Muse,race This article contains a lot of useful information which is not embraced by the volume title, i.e. A D V A N C E S in Fluorine Chemistry and is more properly described as a review. The author could have been very much more economical in his text--terseness with clarity leads to a far more stimulating text as is readily seen if Sharpe's article is compare.d with Musgrave's. The latter reminds me somewhat of Mellor. The sections concerned with the preparations of halogen fluorides serve to give the newcomer to the field an adequate indication of the state of knowledge. However, those on the uses of fluoric halides in organic chemistry are rather disappointing in that vague process details are presented where scientific results are expected. Sharpe Sharpe's article starts off in good style and the reader is left in no doubt as to what he is in for in the way of a chemical "treat". The article deals factually, concisely and in a very readable manner with advances in the fluoride chemistry of transition metals which have taken place in the last decade. 190