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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A useful critical compilation of colorimetric methods., January 1, 2001
This book fills a gap among the chemical analysis textbooks addressing the needs of the metal finishing and metal working industries. It is a critical, authoritative compilation of the available colorimetric methods for most metallic ions, common anions and some common plating additives. The style is concise, the outlook practical, the procedures are presented in a standardized way, and the methods are copiously referenced. Speaking from my own experience, I wish the book had been available a few years ago, since it would have saved me considerable time. (And I suspect it could well have happened, since the book seems to have been in preparation for a while: all the references [except for two appended to the introduction to chapter 3.3] are older than 1993, a fact which is not a great disadvantage in this rather "old-fashioned" field.) The economical format (189 pages) means that some readers will not find here their pet method for a particular element, but such readers are not the main target audience.This book does have some unfortunate shortcomings: 1. While many refernces are mentioned for almost every method, only one procedure is described in detail, and it isn't clear in most cases which reference(s) the procedure is taken from. This is unfortunate especially because, in view of the poor editing (about which more later), the reader is sometimes left in doubt as to important details of the procedure. Also, interferences are stated twice (superfluously) on each page, but only qualitatively, so quick access to the main reference for more information would have been helpful. 2. The standard (mostly) one-page format is convenient, but sometimes turns into a Procustean bed, especially for the more involved procedures. A word of advice: do not summarily hand photocopies of these procedures to a technician or student. For routine use in the lab some procedures may need recopying into list format, with a few extra words added for clarity. 3. The editor has certainly not made an impression. The book is chock-full with typos; these are mostly distracting, but sometimes cast doubt upon important experimental details. E.g., the given quantities of acetic acid and sodium acetate on pp. 35 and 103 cannot possibly yield the specified pH; the ether extract on p. 127 is the upper, not lower, layer. These are self-evident errors, and I suspect there are also more insidious ones. The methods also lack internal consistency. Thus, on the same page different wavelengths are specified for the same procedure (pp. 26, 74, 153); different concentrations of the same reagent are specified (pp. 76, 88, 156); a reagent appears on the list of chemicals but not in the procedure (p. 90); a reagent appears under different names, the correspondence of which is not evident (p. 38). 4. A recurring problem is the lack of a clear definition of concentrations of liquid reagents prepared by dilution of concentrated solutions. In common chemical parlance, "hydrochloric acid 25%" means a mixture of 25 g hydrogen chloride and 75 g water. This is how I interpreted reagent concentrations in this book, until I encountered "50% hydrochloric acid" (pp. 77, 79, 81) and "ammonium hydroxide solution, 50%" (pp. 80, 105), concentrations higher than anything available commercially unless the author really means a 1:1 mixture of concentrated (~37%) hydrochloric acid and water etc. It isn't clear therefore how the numerous dilute solutions mentioned that are made from concentrated less-than-100% reagents (HCl, HF, NH4OH, H2O2, HNO3...) are supposed to be prepared. This ambiguity casts its shadow upon many, possibly most, procedures in the book. Despite these problems, "Colorimetric Analysis..." is a useful book at a reasonable price. With compact, inexpensive spectrophotometers becoming widely available, many of the methods described in this book would be the first choice in terms of simplicity, accuracy and affordability, were it not for the practitioners' relative lack of awareness. This book makes a good case for reassessing an out of fashion but very useful analytical field which is ready for rejuvenation.
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