Customer Reviews

Chemical Analysis: Modern Instrumentation Methods and Techniques

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This book is a recent competitor to two long-used books - Principles of Instrumental Analysis by Skoog and Instrumental Methods of Analysis by Willard et al. (which has a new edition coming out in 2012).

At just over 500 pages, the Rouessacs' book is nowhere near as complete as those 2 books. But what it lacks in comprehensiveness is made up for in readability and understandability. Its best qualities are the very clear illustrations and the cheap price. I also like that it starts off with separations which are the most important and widely-used analytical methods. I agree with its de-emphasis of electrochemistry relegating this topic to 2 chapters later in the book, one on ion-selective electrodes and one on voltammetric techniques. And what's this? It actually includes ALL solutions to the small, but well-chosen problem sets. Most other books would force you to buy a separate solutions manual, so kudos to the authors on that!

Two subjects which could (and should?) be removed from this and all similar instrumental analysis textbooks are NMR and IR since they're rarely used for quantitative work. They're qualitative techniques & are well-covered by other books. Besides, they're typically found in other parts of the undergraduate curriculum like organic spectroscopy & advanced physical chemistry courses.

For students potentially using this as a textbook, be aware you'll have to supplement your readings with Skoog, Willard or something like Chemical Instrumentation by Strobel & Heineman. Can also try James Robinson's instrumental analysis book.

The 2nd edition published by Wiley is not as nice as the French 7th edition put out by Dunod - english version is black and white only while the french version uses a nice red color for emphasis throughout which makes it so much more attractive overall than just black and white.

One weird & inexplicable thing I noticed in the Forward to the first English edition by Guy Ourisson, President of the French Academy of Science. Dated 14 February 2000, he says "...I am sure the present English version, for which I see no equivalent, will now be useful world-wide to students..."

fyi: Willard's book was only first published in 1948 (!) and a French translation appeared in 1965 under the title "Me'thodes physiques de l'analyse chimique". The 7th edition was published in 1988 before going OOP. A new version will appear in 2012.

Skoog's book on instrumental analysis has been in print since 1971. Strobel's book: 1960 (1st edition), 1973 (2nd), 1989 (3rd). Robinson's book was first published in 1970.

For which you see no English equivalent? really, Guy?

I used this as textbook for my "instrumental analysis" class. My students complained a lot about the typos and translation errors. I love the organization as it started with separation then went into spectroscopy and other techniques. Compared to Skoog's popular book, it's much thinner and more affordable. However, it's hard to read as it's a French textbook translated by Canadians. Also some techniques are missing, such as Raman Spectroscopy and Thermal Analysis. The paper copy also makes it fragile. My first book broke into two in the middle of the semester. The simple diagrams in it are often helpful for the understanding of instruments.