Book review in issue 64 page 28

High-pressure Techniques in Chemistry and Physics, A Practical Approach
Editors: Wilfried B.Holzapfel and Neil S.Isaacs
Publisher: Oxford University Press (Practical Approach to Chemistry Series)
1997 ISBN 0 19 855811 2 388 pages including index Hardback Cost £75

One of the exciting aspects of high-pressure technology is the remarkable scope of phenomena which are now studied. Non-ambient density work now ranges from well-established fields such as geophysics through to emerging new areas like the effect of pressure on biological systems. This book provides a very timely review and description of techniques for studies at high pressure across a very wide range of science.

The book is structured as a series of self-contained chapters written by experts in the field being described. Initially pressure generation and measurement are explored and the section on pressure generation is noteworthy as a concise and readable review of pressure cell technology. The book then proceeds to describe measurement techniques in fields ranging from physics, through chemistry to biology. Measurement of physical properties covers electrical resistivity, x-ray and neutron diffraction, light scattering, Mössbauer spectroscopy and viscometry. The chapters on chemistry cover techniques to carry out and monitor chemical reactions at elevated pressures, the use of high-pressure NMR for studies of molecular dynamics, the application of high pressure for studies of chemical kinetics and thermodynamics, and the use of high pressure as an aid to chemical synthesis. Finally, biological applications are covered with a chapter on electrophoresis of proteins at high pressure.

As the title suggests the book is aimed at the experimentalist and provides a good entry-level introduction. The sections provide practical descriptions and illustrations and discuss the pro and cons of the techniques being described. In such a wide-ranging book, the amount of space available to any one technique is limited but the sections are copiously referenced to provide further detail. For readers starting out in a new field, the step by step protocols for carrying out experiments which are found through-out the book will be particularly useful.

Overall, this book is a good starter book for researchers new to the field of high pressure studies and would be a valuable addition to the library of any group working in this field as initial reading for a new graduate-student or post-doc. The broad coverage of the book and its relatively high price mean that it is unlikely to appeal to crystallographers in general.

John Loveday
University of Edinburgh
February 1998

Editor's Note:
A summary of the contents, chapter titles and authors can be found on the Oxford University Press Web site, in their current catalogue, which can be found at URL

http://www.oup.ox.ac.uk

Page last updated 25 March 1998

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