Principles of Instrumental Analysis, 5th Edition [Hardcover]

Douglas A. Skoog (Author), F. James Holler (Author), Timothy A. Nieman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 3, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0030020786 | ISBN-13: 978-0030020780 | Edition: 5th

This text is written for a course that deals with the principles and applications of modern analytical instruments. Emphasis is placed upon the theoretical basis of each type of instrument, its optimal area of application, its sensitivity, its precision, and its limitations. The text also introduces students to elementary integrated circuitry, microprocessors and computers, and treatment of analytical data.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Douglas A. Skoog earned a B.S. in chemistry from Oregon State University and received his Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of Illinois. The lead author of several best-selling texts, Dr. Skoog is the 1999 recipient of the American Chemical Society award in analytical chemistry, sponsored by the Fisher Scientific Company. That same year, he was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1993, he received the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at Stanford University.

F. James Holler is a Professor of Chemistry and recipient of the Alumni Association Great Teacher Award at the University of Kentucky. He received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University. In addition to his role as co-author of several best-selling texts, he is co-creator of the world-famous Periodic Table of Comic Books.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 849 pages
• Publisher: Brooks Cole; 5th edition (September 3, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0030020786
• ISBN-13: 978-0030020780
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 8.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #276,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #20 in Books > Science & Math > Experiments, Instruments & Measurement > Scientific Instruments
  • #54 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Chemistry > Analytic

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars sucks as a textbook / awesome as a reference tool!, April 3, 2005

By 

Yegor G. Timofeyenko (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Principles of Instrumental Analysis, 5th Edition (Hardcover)

I am a graduate student in Analytical Chemistry. This book has been a great resource when I need to look up a speceific topic. I like the fact that it provides references to most topics. They are a great starting point if you want to research that topic. Just look up the references, plug it into SciFinder and see who's been quoting it a lot and then look up his/her latest book or review article on the subject ;)

Forget about this book if you want to use it as a textbook, unless you have a very good instructor who'll provide you with a good overview and pick'n'choose what parts of the book you need to be aquainted with.

I don't think this book was written to be a self-contained, 'read-it-from-beginning' & 'i'll-take-your-hand-and-guide-you-though-the-subject' type of a book. So you can't blame it for what it's not meant to be. This is the type of a book you need to pick up with an established purpose or question in your mind. Then you'll consider it to be a valuable resource. If you pick it up just as a beginning student in the field, you'll absolutely hate it with a serious passion! If you use it as I suggest, it will take an honored place in your library. I have the deepest respect for authors of this book and am very thankful for providing me with such a strong tool in my career.

Another great book I'd put in the same category is

Spectrometric Identification of Organic Compounds

by Robert M. Silverstein, Francis X. Webster, David Kiemle

(6th edition)

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good instrumental chemistry overview, but needs a proofread., July 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Principles of Instrumental Analysis, 5th Edition (Hardcover)

As an undergrad chemistry major at James Madison University, I was required to purchase this text for my senior level instrumental methods class. Fortunately, my professor was one of the co-authors to a previous edition of this book and was able to point out many of the editing flaws in this text before they became a problem. But any good book has its problems. I found it increasingly frustrating that some of the diagrams were mislabeled, or labeled with information of questionable accuracy and/or value. Additionally, the book is written in an extremely dull fashion. Well, you may be saying "this is chemistry, its supposed to be dull and boring!" I would tell you that is the absolute untruth! I have read many technical manuals and texts which cover not only difficult material, but present it in an easily readable fashion. This COULD be a fabulous book if the authors would proofread the newest version themselves and correct some of the errors. A large portion of this book is devoted to the accuracy of data and the maximization of signal to noise ratio. With this in mind I find it disturbing that a book which so advocates this has so many errors in it!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I'm very disappointed with the new version., February 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Principles of Instrumental Analysis, 5th Edition (Hardcover)

I'm a graduate student retaking Instrumental Analysis. Fortunately for me, I have the fouth addition to reference. As a student, I'm required to do homework from various chapters. In doing this, I've found numerous reference errors within the problem sets. This makes problem solving difficult (to say the least). It seems as though the proof readers only read the material and did not try to solve any of the problems. The written text is better than the older edition; however, I've still found equational errors. In the end, I'm forced to use both editions. Finally, I will give credit to the amount of useful information within the text. I find that portion of the book highly informative and relatively detailed.