Customer Reviews

Modern Electrochemistry 1: Ionics, 2nd Edition

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These authors have a great writing style. This is a subject matter that has a potential to be very, very dry but the authors have somehow made it enjoyable. If they get into hardcore calculations and derivations that you might be a little rusty on, they anticipate that (I assume from lots of students' feedback) and include appendixes at the end of each chapter so that you don't need to run off and find the corresponding chapter in one of your math/physics/chemistry textbooks. They also have a very useful nomenclature guide (in the first book only) in case you keep forgetting what certain symbols mean and what units they are in. The footnotes are great and keep things from getting too dry. Overall, I would definitely recommend these three books.

Note: Unless you have a fetish for hard covers, get the paperbacks; they're half the cost. When I bought these books from amazon.com, it was very confusing to figure out which books to get. Here are the ISBN's of each of the three books in the series. This will save you some headache:

Electrochemistry 1: Ionics

ISBN: 0306455552 (paperback)

Electrochemistry 2A: Fundamentals of Electrodics

ISBN: 0306461676 (paperback)

Electrochemistry 2B: Electrodics in Chemistry, Engineering, Biology, and Environmental Science

ISBN: 0306463253 (paperback)

The Modern Electrochemistry volumes are truly excellent textbooks and references for all aspects of electrochemistry.
Whether you're dealing with corrosion, electrolytic processes, batteries, or biochemistry, the electrochemistry is fully explained here. The authors go into a great deal of detail topics while maintaining a very familiar, easy-to-read tone. There are also plenty of interesting historical footnotes which serve to lighten the text.

These books are written for electrochemists interested in the chemical mechanisms behind electrochemical processes. Applications of these processes are treated very briefly. If you are more interested in real-world applications of these processes, other texts may serve you better.

The text comes in three volumes, which is problematic. It is difficult to find all three at most booksellers. Many online booksellers (including Amazon) don't distinguish between the volumes in their catalogs; I had to go by ISBN numbers to ensure I got the complete set. But it was well worth the trouble.

The difference of this second Ed. from the first one is huge; the author actually rewrote ca. 50% of the first volume (Ionics) and ca. 70% of the second volume (Electrodics, still in writing), covering literature up to later 90's.

For classroom use, the most important addition of the edition is the <B>problem set</B>, which are extremely helpful for students on introductory level.

It was a great honor of me to be invited by the author to write part of the problem sets for all chapters in Vol.1 and a few chapters in Vol.2, and I can tell you that the author and the problem writers put in a lot of effort to elucidate the fundamental electrochemistry while also help original thinkings of the students on more advanced electrochemistry issues.

Remarkable book. I admire how the authors explain the analogy between gravitaional potential, electrostatic potential and chemical potential in the context of a solute-solvent in an electrochemical system. I beleive that a clarity of understanding can be achieved only by (listening to someone having) a clarity of expression that comes from (that person who has the) clarity of thought. The authors have striven to present electrochemical aspects, as they state, in lucid and honest manner. I think they can also claim, "fluid" (I mean flow, not less-concrete stuff) in their accomplishment because the text flows so well and it is a very readable book. I have no doubt the authors have been inspired by Feynman's Lectures of Physics.

An excellent book on ionics in electrochemistry. Bockris and Reddy are great authorities on electrochmistry and have handled all the topics covered in this book very lucidly and superbly. A must reading for all electrochemists and others who are working in this area.