590 BWKREVIEWS

Corntemporary EketroanaIytkal CM&try: A. IVASKA,A. LEWENSTAM and R. SARA(editors), Plenum, New York, 1990.
Pages x + 458. USS120.00. ISBN O-306-43818-6.

This book contains 53 papers presented by 106 authors at the ElectroFinnAnalysis Conference at Turku-Abe, Finland,
in June 1988. The papers have been grouped into seven sections, though the allocation in some cases has been made quite
arbitrarily.
The first section, headed ‘Electrochemical Instrumentation and Methods’, contains eight papers, half of which deal with
‘fast’ techniques, i.e., fast electrochemistry, FT-faradaic admittance, fast potentiostats, and FFT-filtering, whilst the other
four papers deal with photoelectroanalytical chemistry, reverse pulse voltammetry, multiple sensor arrays, and simultaneous
ESR-electroanalytical investigations. Regardless of one’s particular interest, most electrochemists will find this section of
interest for the papers highlight the advances being made in several techniques. The second section deals with ‘Industrial
Applications’ of electroanalytical techniques to process and product control, andenvironmental monitoring; products cited

Although most of the papers in this book deal with sensors in one form or another, the ten papers in the section
‘Electrochemical Sensors’ deal with the structures and responses of solid-state devices, such as ISFETs, SFETs, MOSFETs,
and chemically-modified electrodes and ion-selective membrane electrodes. The papers in the fourth section, ‘Electro-
chemical Flow Analysis’, concentrate mainly on flow injection analysis, and the modification of electrode systems for use
in flow analysis.
Most of the papers in the sections ‘Clinical Applications’ and ‘Pharmaceutical Applications’ deal with the use of
ion-selective electrodes and adsorptive stripping voltammetry. In the final ‘General’ section, there are more papers dealing
with the use of adsorptive stripping voltammetry, and some with differential pulse polarography.
With the large number of papers, it is inevitable that the quality of the publications varies, but, on the whole, the quality
is reasonably good. All of the papers are clearly written, informative, and uptodate at the time of the conference: there
are a number of mis-spellings but these do not diminish the overall quality of the book. This book can be recommended
to those who wish to be aware of the progress made in the many related fields of electroanalytical chemistry.

J. B. CRAIG

Tbe KIrk-Othmer EneyeIoPedIa of Cbemicrl Technology: Volume 3, Fourth Edition. Antibiotics (B-Lactams) to Batteries.
J. I. Knosc~~~~z and M. HOWE-GRANT(editors), Wiley-Interscience, Chichester, 1992. Pages xxviii + 1121. E135.00.
ISBN O-471-52671-1 (v. 3).

A review of the fh-st volume of the fourth edition of this encyclopedia appeared in Talcam, 39, 1063. The current volume
completes an extensive section on antibiotics (continued from volume 2) and the contents then proceed alphabetically to
a 158-page dissertation on batteries. As with the two previous volumes numerous authors from industry and academia have
contributed to this tome.
Elements and compounds of antimony, arsenic and barium are covered in a concise manner with details of production
and economics. Much general chemistry associated with these elements is also included. The importance of pharmaceutical
compounds is very much in evidence for as well as the section on antibiotics there are details of antiobesity drugs,
antiparasitic agents and antiviral agents. Indeed, almost half of this volume is concerned with pharmaceutical agents.
There is a small section on automated instrumentation which is devoted to descriptions of analysers used in clinical
chemistry and hematology. Analysis is also mentioned in the section concerning asbestos. An attempt to locate atomic-
absorption spectroscopy in the encyclopedia results in a referral to the section on spectroscopy in a future volume. Some
of the other topics in volume 3 include antifreezes, antioxidants, atmospheric modelling, axe dyes, bakery processes and
barrier polymers.
Overall the volume maintains the high standard of previous volumes with many up-to-date references, competent and
easy-to-understand descriptions of technological processes and much interesting chemistry.
P. J. Cox