Customer Reviews

The Chemistry of Explosives (Rsc Paperbacks)

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This is a 173 page paper bound book published by the Royal Society of Chemistry and authored by Jacqueline Akhavan of Cranfield University, Royal Military College of Science, in the United Kingdom. The text partially fills a gap in the literature of explosives by providing more information on the chemistry of manufacturing and functioning of explosives. However, it still is more of a text about explosives than it is about the chemistry of explosives. In brief, it is a fairly good introductory text, but stops significantly short of being a great one.

I was disappointed by the book as named, and expected much more in the way of chemistry of explosives.

Unfortunately, what I found was mostly thermodynamic data and equations and chemical "reaction" equations that often did not even include structures, just formulae, reminiscent of high-school (USA) chemistry equations. In this respect, this book is most certainly NOT for the organic chemist. I do not believe a single curly arrow is to be found in this book !

I would like to point out in particular my displeasure with the way that chemical structure is depicted in this book. Unfortunately the author appears to be unfamiliar with the ChemDraw application or other similar drawing programs. It would be polite to say that some chemical reaction schemes are painful to look at. Take for example the reaction scheme 7.10 on page 131 (search for "hexamethylenetetramine" to find it in the book preview): I have never seen a 6-6 fused ring system look like 2 cyclobutane rings fused with unholy angle strain, but lo and behold there it is. These are the types of chemical structures i expect from the 1800's or from a old biology textbook, but not a modern chemistry book!

I would like to note that I was particularly disappointed with the caliber of the graphics included within the book (structures, as noted above and otherwise). The few schemes that are present in the book look as if they've been drawn in MS Paint or a similarly simple program and lack the finesse I expect from modern books.

In summary,this is much more a physics book concerning explosives, dominated by thermodynamics numbers and equations.

I would instead strongly recommend "The Organic Chemistry of Explosives" by Agrawal for chemists. Link:: Organic Chemistry of Explosives

I purchased this book as a sophomore chemistry student. It's easy to read and follow the text, and lacks the boring textbook aspect. Great book for the serious student, or even professionals looking for a brush up on explosives. Covers the history, and the future or explosives, as well as everything in between.