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Molten salt techniques, Volume 2.
423
J. Electroanal. Chem., 201 (1986) 423-426 Elsevier Sequoia S.A., Lausanne - Printed in The Netherlands
Book reviews Molten Salt Techniques, Volume 2. R.J. Gale and D.G. Lovering Plenum Press, New York, 1985, xviii + 255 pp., US$39.50.
(Editors).
This book is Volume 2 of a promised series in which acknowledged experts reveal some of the “tricks of the trade” for handling and making measurements in molten salts. The aims of the book are highly commendable; it seeks not only to provide a review of experimental techniques which should be useful to those already working with these materials but also to include the important practical guidance which should be invaluable to those new to the field and which should give confidence to those considering possible applications of molten salts for their own particular problems. Although the technological importance of molten salts (e.g. in electrowinning) is part of our elementary chemical education, their general chemical properties and use in the laboratory may seem a dark mystery to those more accustomed to working with liquids and solutions at ambient temperatures. In the past twenty years, however, it has become recognised that molten salts (alternatively “ionic liquids”) display a rich variety of behaviour waiting to be exploited by chemists and physicists. On the one hand they are, for theoretical purposes, an interesting class of relatively simple liquids which present an important challenge to our understanding of statistical mechanics and intermolecular forces. On the other hand they are being recognised as stable and often convenient reaction media for electrolytic processes or for analytical and preparative chemistry. Working with molten salts we have a degree of control over a variety of properties (temperature range, basicity, etc.) that is unmatched by other more conventional solvents. As a result of painstaking experience and the development of new containment materials, problems of corrosion and impurity reactions are now being brought largely under control. The book is well produced. Figures and diagrams are clearly presented, the printing is comfortable to read and there are very few obvious typographical errors. It contains six chapters which vary considerably in length and involve a total of nine authors. Aside from a short “stocking filler” introduction by the editors, there are two useful articles on the special problems of handling oxygen-containing molten salts, namely oxides, silicates, phosphates and borates (I.D. Sommerville and H.B. Bell; 32 pp.) and alkali metal carbonates (H.C. Maru; 26 pp.). A different flavour is provided in a more speculative article on automated admittance spectroscopy (K. Rajeshwar; 30 pp.). This new technique is presented as a method of characterising processes at semiconductor-molten salt interfaces (potentially important in solar conversion systems) by measuring the phase shift and attenuation of an applied ac signal. Most of this article is concerned with developing the interpretation of data in terms of equivalent electrical circuits. The bulk of the book is taken up by two extensive and authoritative articles on electrochemistry (F. Lantelme, D. Inman and D.G. Lovering; 76 pp.) and molten salt spectroscopy (T.R. Griffiths; 54 pp.) which are valuable in-depth surveys of the respective
424
experimental techniques. I believe, however, that both of these chapters would have been enhanced by including surveys of the kinds of problems that can be tackled and brief (but critical) assessments of the various methods for interpreting the results. As is typical of contributed volumes the articles vary widely in style and in the detail of information that they provide. Each article is presented as an individual package concentrating on the special problems associated with particular melts or measurement techniques. Consequently there is very little crossreferencing and a fair amount of repetition. The latter is not entirely a bad feature, however, since it helps to provide the reader with a broader and more useful perspective. For instance, measurement of basic physicochemical properties (e.g. phase diagrams, viscosity, etc.) is covered both in Chapter 2 (alkali metal carbonates) and, with a good deal more detail, in Chapter 3 on oxides. A reader requiring information on furnace design can turn either to Chapter 4 (on spectroscopy) or to Chapter 5 (on electrochemistry) for different perspectives on the problem. There is also a detailed and useful discussion of temperature control and measurement in Chapter 5. This book will be appreciated by a wide range of scientists and technologists. It is to be hoped that its use in the library, in the office and at the workbench will stimulate further fundamental and applied research with this underused class of solvents. JULIAN
Instrumental Methods in Electrochemistry. Ellis Horwood, Chichester, 443 pp., $49.50. Southampton Electrochemistry Group.
CLARKE Manchester
1985,
This book, co-authored by R. Greef, R. Peat, L.M. Peter, D. Pletcher and J. Robinson, is a useful and pleasant addition to other works in the same field, more specifically those by Bard and Faulkner and by Yeager and Salkind. The way the content is presented and developed reflects the didactic origin and the educational purpose of this volume, which constitutes in fact the most distinctive quality of this work. Electrochemistry textbooks say, customarily, everything about fundamentals but nothing about techniques. As a consequence, students (or people in general wishing to deal with electrochemistry) do not get any idea of how the simplest experiments may be carried out. This book has been devised to fill this gap. To this purpose, it has been organized so that alternate chapters cover fundamentals and techniques. The volume consists of eleven chapters: (1) Introduction to the fundamental concepts of electrochemistry (which gives a birds-eye view of the topics to be covered in the successive chapters); (2) Steady-state and potential-step techniques; (3) Electron transfer (with fundamental theories for metals and semiconductors); (4) Convective diffusion systems (rotating disc and ring-disc electrodes); (5) The electrical double layer (capacitance and interfacial tension measurements); (6) Potential-sweep techniques and cyclic voltammetry; (7) Electrocatalysis (hydrogen evolution, oxygen reduction, anodic organic reac-
J. Electroanal. Chem., 201 (1986) 423-426 Elsevier Sequoia S.A., Lausanne - Printed in The Netherlands
Book reviews Molten Salt Techniques, Volume 2. R.J. Gale and D.G. Lovering Plenum Press, New York, 1985, xviii + 255 pp., US$39.50.
(Editors).
This book is Volume 2 of a promised series in which acknowledged experts reveal some of the “tricks of the trade” for handling and making measurements in molten salts. The aims of the book are highly commendable; it seeks not only to provide a review of experimental techniques which should be useful to those already working with these materials but also to include the important practical guidance which should be invaluable to those new to the field and which should give confidence to those considering possible applications of molten salts for their own particular problems. Although the technological importance of molten salts (e.g. in electrowinning) is part of our elementary chemical education, their general chemical properties and use in the laboratory may seem a dark mystery to those more accustomed to working with liquids and solutions at ambient temperatures. In the past twenty years, however, it has become recognised that molten salts (alternatively “ionic liquids”) display a rich variety of behaviour waiting to be exploited by chemists and physicists. On the one hand they are, for theoretical purposes, an interesting class of relatively simple liquids which present an important challenge to our understanding of statistical mechanics and intermolecular forces. On the other hand they are being recognised as stable and often convenient reaction media for electrolytic processes or for analytical and preparative chemistry. Working with molten salts we have a degree of control over a variety of properties (temperature range, basicity, etc.) that is unmatched by other more conventional solvents. As a result of painstaking experience and the development of new containment materials, problems of corrosion and impurity reactions are now being brought largely under control. The book is well produced. Figures and diagrams are clearly presented, the printing is comfortable to read and there are very few obvious typographical errors. It contains six chapters which vary considerably in length and involve a total of nine authors. Aside from a short “stocking filler” introduction by the editors, there are two useful articles on the special problems of handling oxygen-containing molten salts, namely oxides, silicates, phosphates and borates (I.D. Sommerville and H.B. Bell; 32 pp.) and alkali metal carbonates (H.C. Maru; 26 pp.). A different flavour is provided in a more speculative article on automated admittance spectroscopy (K. Rajeshwar; 30 pp.). This new technique is presented as a method of characterising processes at semiconductor-molten salt interfaces (potentially important in solar conversion systems) by measuring the phase shift and attenuation of an applied ac signal. Most of this article is concerned with developing the interpretation of data in terms of equivalent electrical circuits. The bulk of the book is taken up by two extensive and authoritative articles on electrochemistry (F. Lantelme, D. Inman and D.G. Lovering; 76 pp.) and molten salt spectroscopy (T.R. Griffiths; 54 pp.) which are valuable in-depth surveys of the respective
424
experimental techniques. I believe, however, that both of these chapters would have been enhanced by including surveys of the kinds of problems that can be tackled and brief (but critical) assessments of the various methods for interpreting the results. As is typical of contributed volumes the articles vary widely in style and in the detail of information that they provide. Each article is presented as an individual package concentrating on the special problems associated with particular melts or measurement techniques. Consequently there is very little crossreferencing and a fair amount of repetition. The latter is not entirely a bad feature, however, since it helps to provide the reader with a broader and more useful perspective. For instance, measurement of basic physicochemical properties (e.g. phase diagrams, viscosity, etc.) is covered both in Chapter 2 (alkali metal carbonates) and, with a good deal more detail, in Chapter 3 on oxides. A reader requiring information on furnace design can turn either to Chapter 4 (on spectroscopy) or to Chapter 5 (on electrochemistry) for different perspectives on the problem. There is also a detailed and useful discussion of temperature control and measurement in Chapter 5. This book will be appreciated by a wide range of scientists and technologists. It is to be hoped that its use in the library, in the office and at the workbench will stimulate further fundamental and applied research with this underused class of solvents. JULIAN
Instrumental Methods in Electrochemistry. Ellis Horwood, Chichester, 443 pp., $49.50. Southampton Electrochemistry Group.
CLARKE Manchester
1985,
This book, co-authored by R. Greef, R. Peat, L.M. Peter, D. Pletcher and J. Robinson, is a useful and pleasant addition to other works in the same field, more specifically those by Bard and Faulkner and by Yeager and Salkind. The way the content is presented and developed reflects the didactic origin and the educational purpose of this volume, which constitutes in fact the most distinctive quality of this work. Electrochemistry textbooks say, customarily, everything about fundamentals but nothing about techniques. As a consequence, students (or people in general wishing to deal with electrochemistry) do not get any idea of how the simplest experiments may be carried out. This book has been devised to fill this gap. To this purpose, it has been organized so that alternate chapters cover fundamentals and techniques. The volume consists of eleven chapters: (1) Introduction to the fundamental concepts of electrochemistry (which gives a birds-eye view of the topics to be covered in the successive chapters); (2) Steady-state and potential-step techniques; (3) Electron transfer (with fundamental theories for metals and semiconductors); (4) Convective diffusion systems (rotating disc and ring-disc electrodes); (5) The electrical double layer (capacitance and interfacial tension measurements); (6) Potential-sweep techniques and cyclic voltammetry; (7) Electrocatalysis (hydrogen evolution, oxygen reduction, anodic organic reac-