No comments about Electrochemical Supercapacitors: Scientific Fundamentals and Technological Applications.

5 comments about Introduction to Computational Chemistry.

1. This informative textbook from Jensen provides a comprehensive review of methods in computational chemistry. The equations are kept to a minimal level to ensure a focus on methodology, as opposed to pure math. This text would suit any higher level undergraduate theoretical course.



2. For a brief, general introduction to Computational Chemistry I prefer Grant & Richards', and for a deeper, detailed description of the whole filed, Leach's. Jensen is mainly oriented towards 'ab initio' methods with a touch of Molecular Mechanics.
   This book starts with a short introduction to Molecular Mechanics and Dynamics, and then moves on to 'ab initio' Quantum Chemistry methods, to which it is mainly devoted and where it extends in greater detail. There, it becomes an excellent and deeper introduction to all the methods of Quantum Chemistry, and gets its true value.
   Detailed descriptions of the different levels of theory, basis sets, density functional theory, semiempirical methods, relativistic methods, etc... make it an excellent introductory reading. Math coverage is just enough to undertand what is going on and how it will affect the computation, but not enough to help you write or design your own software.
   There are lots of examples along the book used to illustrate the points, and an invaluable chapter comparing the different methods, their accuracy and performance and their utility in different calculations. The book carefully avoids tying to specific software packages and keeps examples on a higher level thus maintaining its applicability and generality. This is a good book for those mainly interested in Quantum Methods, wishing to learn about them, how they work and how they are applied in practice, as well as how they are implemented and what this will cost in computability and computer time. The initial chapters on MM and MD are detailed enough to provide a starting link to the methods used for more complex molecular systems.



3. Provides an excellent overview of quantum mechanical computational chemistry methods. Discusses semiempirical, wave mechanics and density functional approaches in great detail. Also goes a good job discussing basis sets, optimization methods etc. Unfortunately, much less attention is given to other computational methods such as molecular mechanics. If one desires an overview of the entire compuational chemistry field, I reccommend Molecular Modeling by Leach. If your interests lie primarily in QM methods, this book has a more complete discussion of these methods than Leach's text.



4. Well, this book is a must-read for those who perform ab initio calculations. If you have enough quantum chemistry background, then this book is a good reference for your electronic structure calculations. However, you can not expect that you can learn HF, MPn, CC, CASSCF, CI, SE, etc., from this book. I think the reason for this book being so popular is because there is lack another one of the same introductory level. This book is not simple enough for a beginner as well as not deep enough for advanced readers. It does not discuss all the topic covered in the book in detail (maybe the capter of basis set is the only exception). This book is also lack of a chaper for calculating thermodynamic properties based on ab initio results. Anyway, this book may fill some gaps of my knowledge on ab initio calculations, but I do not enjoy reading it because it never helps to understand the principle of ab initio. For those who want to learn quantum chemistry/ab initio calc., this is absolutely NOT the one. Levine's quantum chemistry (5th) and modern quantum chemisty are the books written in much better style. For MM, TST/statistical mechanics chapters, which should be removed and leave more space for ab initio, I agree with other reviewers.



5. I'm a practicing quantum chemist and I own this book, Levine, Szabo, Helgaker, etc. This is by far the worst book for many reasons. First, this book is not pedagogical, you will not learn HOW anything works, just what Jensen or common knowledge says about different methods. Second, Jensen isn't a very good quantum chemist and he's flat out wrong in some places. His remarks on relativistic effects in quantum chemistry elicited a "that's f***ing b***s**t" from an expert in relativistic quantum chemistry I know.
   
   If you want to learn the basics of the methods, Levine, Szabo and Helgaker are the best, in order of difficulty, although review articles (free to academics) and lecture notes found on UGeorgia's CCC home page by David Sherrill are just as good for no cost. I have heard Cramer does a better job at the goal of this book, however, there's no point to writing these quasi-undergraduate textbooks since they aren't classroom-worthy, nor are they useful to any real researcher in the field.
   
   Because one might not care for my review, here is a review in one of the foremost journals in chemistry:
   
   Angewandte Chemie, Int. Ed., September 1999
   
   The large and continually increasing importance of theoretical methods in the solution of chemical problems was impressively documented last year by the conferring of the Nobel price for chemistry on two extraordinary champions of this genre, John Pople and Walter Kohn. Of course, the appearance of Frank Jensen's textbook about computational chemistry could hardly have been better timed. In contrast to the numerous quantum-chemistry textbooks previously available, this book intends to cover the entire field of computational chemistry, although the main emphasis is clearly on the discussion of quantum-mechanical methods.
   
   Jensen begins with an introductory, barely 50 page chapter about empirical force field methods. As in the rest of the book, the aspects being discussed are pleasantly geared toward the requirements of the potential user. In this manner, different parameterization strategies are discussed, and popular force fields are critically examined with regard to their fields of application and are compared to each other. Additional, modern approaches such as the determination of transition structures through force field calculations or the combination of force field methods with quantum-chemical strategies are introduced. Chapters follow in which a conventional, if also state of the art, introduction to the predominant tools of quantum chemistry - the Hartree-Fock approximations, important semiempirical methods (from the H?ckel model to PM3 and SAM1_, and current methods for the inclusion of electron correlation (configuration interaction, perturbation theory, coupled cluster) - is given. These sections are sensibly supplemented by a chapter dedicated to the different basis sets and their characteristics, in which extrapolation methods such as the different Gaussian-1 and -2, CBS, or PCI-X methods are also included. A modern theoretical textbook can naturally not be without a chapter about density functional theory, so their fundamentals and popular functionals are on 15 pages concisely introduced. Somewhat more specialized sections follow about valence-bond methods, relativistic approaches, population analysis, and the calculation of molecular properties. Subsequently, an entire discusses the accuracies of the previous introduced methods, with respect to the calculation of energies, geometries, vibrational frequencies, dipole moments, and so on. Fortunately, this discussion is not limited to the ubiquitous water molecule, but rather treats several systems that are more difficult. In the last third of this work, further points important to the subject of the book are worked through, unfortunately rather disjointedly. The relationships between thermodynamic quantities or absolute rate constants and the calculation of molecular quantities are established. The relevant methods for the optimization of minima and saddle points on potential energy surfaces are discussed and the qualitative concepts of frontier orbital theory and related approaches are expounded. Finally, simulation techniques such as the Monte-Carlo method or molecular dynamics, as well as approximate methods for the inclusion of solvent effect (COSMO, PCM, etc.) are introduced.
   
   Based on the organization of the content and the elementary level of the presentation especially in the first part, this book serves as a useful accompanying text for application-oriented seminars and classes. As a rule, these cover a similar variety of subjects, and do not reduce the modeling and simulation methods to quantum chemistry. Beyond that, the efforts of the author to deliver a modern book that reflects the current state of the art are to be commended. Recent developments, such as hybrid strategies for the combination of force field and quantum-mechanical methods, the R12 approach in the calculations of electron correlation, or fast-multipole as well as pseudospectral methods for the efficient calculation of Columbic interactions are taken up in the discussion. Correspondingly up-to-date are the many useful references, which are as recent as 1998.
   
   Despite this generally positive impression, there are some naturally some details that give rise to critical comments. For example, in some places the mathematical formalisms are described in great detail, while their interpretation is neglected. This is especially striking in the discussion of the density functionals. The highly complex expressions for, for example, Vosko, Wilk, and Nusair (VWN) or Lee, Yang, and Parr (LYP) correlation functionals are reproduced in all their beauty, although the actually do not reflect the underlying physics, but rather springs from purely pragmatic considerations. This reference fails, however, so that the complicated mathematics puts one off and do not impart any increased knowledge. Similar observations can be made about both the overly demanding sections about relativistic methods and the calculation of molecular properties. Here, the level is anything but elementary, much is assumed, and the description is far too compact. It is debatable, for instance, whether the highly complex discussion of propargators methods would be at all helpful to the reader of this book. Similarly, one can ask what the use the reader can make of the barely two-page appendix on the subject of ?second quantization.? which has no recognizable connection to the rest of the text. Here, less would surely have been more. Many smaller inconsistencies also blur the picture, such as when important concepts are used without comment many pages before they are introduced (e.g. ?natural orbitals?), or are never explained in greater detail (e.g. ?gradient norm?). Many misprints have also unfortunately crept in. Apart from the omission of a factor of ?N? in the definition of electron density, these are luckily only distracting and do not invalidate the contents. In the reference section in particular, one finds many wayward spellings of the authors? names. Also conspicuous is the clear and not always professionally understandable preference for Scandinavian authors in the selection of literature references.
   
   Nevertheless, these critical comments should not obscure the fact that this book is an interesting new release. It covers the subject relevant to this area, is modern, and is over all pleasantly and understandably written. Jensen?s book will, despite the small problems, live up to the claims of being a useful introduction to the techniques of computational chemistry. It can be recommended to students of general chemistry,a s well as those scientists interested in the subject, especially in the view of its pleasantly moderate price.
   
   Wolfram Koch
   Gesellshaft Deutscher Chemiker
   Frankfurt a.M. (Germany)

5 comments about Elementary Principles of Chemical Processes.

1. I'm taking the class that goes along with this book at my school and I have to say this is the worst book I have ever seen. Yes it presents material and all that but it does so with very little explanation. If you don't understand it right away this book won't help at all, it won't explain any more, do any detailed examples, or help you with homework solutions. The only thing that could save this book is an answer solutions book because then you could learn from all of the homework problems. Without that, the homework is a complete mystery because most of it is never even taught in the chapter they just expect you to know it from somewhere else. In conclusion, DO NOT but this book unless you have no other option.



2. okay first off, this book is NOT for 1st or second year students. the examples make sense(some of the time) until you get to the problems in the back of the book and then you wonder why you picked chemical engineering as a major in the first place because these problems really makes you feel sort of dumb. im taking the materials and energy balance class and in my school it's used to weed people out. let me say this again, if you are taking a materials and energy balance class and you need a text, do not get this one. i hear a lot of great things from the text basic principles and calculations in chem eng by D.M Himmelblau and J.B Riggs so get that one instead unless your teacher demands you get this book. truly a horrible book to start out a chem eng major.



3. As a junior Chemical Engineering student, I used this book in my very first class as a chemical engineering course. It covers fundamentals of chemical processes and the physics/chemistry behind them. Turns out much of the material in this book is applicable (at least in part) to every other course in not only a chemical engineering cirriculum but engineering/science in general. The book is very well organized and text is very readable by a complete novice and as a reference later on. There are many examples and challenging problems at the end (which the 2005 edition has fixed the errors in solutions).



4. The book was new and had the cd and both were in excellent condition. It arrived quickly too.



5. Everything came as promised--the book was in the promised condition with the workbook added--in a timely manner.

2 comments about Electrochemical Methods: Fundamentals and Applications, Student Solutions Manual, 2nd Edition.

1. This book is essential item for students who study electrochemistry.
   It is very hard to study 'Electrochemical Methods'. But with this student solutions manual, it could become easier.
   But, it would be better if all problems were solved.



2. This "solutions manual" doesn't actually bother to help you solve anything, it only confirms if you done something correctly. It only provides the answers to approximately 25% of the problems at the end of the chapter.
   The biggest problem is that it doesn't show you how to solve these questions, only provides you with an answer. I'd prefer it not give me the answers, but lead me through the theory to solve the problems.
   I felt misslead by this book being called a solutions manual, and feel that the price tag is ridiculous for something that is essentially a list of numbers and graphs that should be included in the allready expensive book.
   I definately would not recommend this to anyone.

No comments about Physical Chemistry Problem Solver (Problem Solvers).

2 comments about Physical Properties of Crystals: Their Representation by Tensors and Matrices.

1. The book by Nye is considered by many people in the relevant scientific societies as the "bible" of crystal physics. In scientific terms, it is a rigorously written book on tensor algedra which which is the mathematical formalism essential to describe the physical properties of crystals. The mathematical complexity of the book is rather elementary and hence could be used for a senior level advanced undergraduate course as well (typically it is used as a first your graduate course text). The first half of the book discusses equilibrium properties of crystals (permittivity, piezoelectricity, elasticity etc.), therefore a rather modest background in physics is needed. The second half of the book that is devoted to transport properties may require some "general" background on the basic principles of transport phenomena and irreversible thermodynamics. This book, in my opinion, is a very well written book that places the physical properties of crystals in an "easy to comprehend" mathematical framework eloquently. It is an excellent text book. I highly recommend it.



2. This is a book easy to read and to follow from the beginning until the end. It is worth to get it if you are interested in the relationship between symmetry and properties of any crystalline material.
   It is broadly explained the derivation of the 32 point groups and they relation with the piezoelectricity, strain, thermal conductivity, etc.
   It's an essential book for both, Materials scientists and students.

No comments about Ecological Stoichiometry: The Biology of Elements from Molecules to the Biosphere.

No comments about The Elements of Physical Chemistry Solutions Manual.

4 comments about Essentials of Computational Chemistry: Theories and Models.

1. This book is a follow-up to a previous release and is a great textbook for learning how to simulate atoms, molecules, and fluid mixtures using a variety of techniques. Its positive attributes includes the following:
   
   1. The author makes it a point to explain the various phrases, acronyms, and terms common in the field, but which may confuse the novice or outsider. For example, the first chapter explains the concept of a potential energy surface, how it can be obtained, and the information that can be gleaned from it. These are simple concepts to those experienced in atomistic modeling but can be mysterious to newcomers.
   
   2. The mathematics in the text are simple enough to be understood without the reader having to resort to proving things herself, but they are complete enough to understand how physical concepts are represented and solved. The equations are also set apart from the text such that they are easy to read.
   
   3. There are a lot of diagrammatic figures that explain what is going on; i.e. how atoms interact via certain empirical potentials. One can also tell that the figures were made specifically to teach a concept, and are not reproductions from a publication.
   
   4. The text is appropriate for first-year graduate students in physics, engineering, and chemistry, and the book provides chapters dedicated to quantum mechanics and thermodynamics, the two topics science and engineering students have the most difficulty in.
   
   5. The case study at the end of each chapter are well laid out and do a good job of illustrating the concepts taught in that chapter.
   
   6. There are a lot of flowcharts that show the process by which a calculation is carried out. See for example the appendix on determining the point symmetry of a molecule. Flowcharts are essentiall to understanding how software works, and is probably the biggest difference between computer science and all the other sciences. Computers execute instructions and programmers use flowcharts to decide how a software is put together. Classes and books in the other science and engineering majors are often devoid of flowcharts, so the use of flowcharts in this book helps the reader get into the computational mindset.
   
   7. The list of references at the end of each chapter are primarily to review articles and articles that introduced important concepts. This provides the reader alternate sources of learning. Gone are long lists of case studies and published data.
   
   With so many pluses, why did I give four stars instead of five? Four reasons mainly.
   
   A. There is almost no coverage of the algorithms used to do the mathematics, whether it be diagonalizing the Hamiltonian, or an Ewald summation of interatomic potentials. For example, I do not recall reading anything about the conjugate gradient method anywhere in the book, yet this algorithm is coded into most major codes in computational chemistry like VASP, SIESTA, ADF, etc...
   
   B. There was minimal discussion of techniques for modeling solids. There were chapters dedicated to modeling gases and liquids, but nothing on solids. This is especially disheartening considering that most of the funded chemistry (theoretical and experimental) going on today involves solids; whether it is designing new polymers, hydrogen storage for fuel cells, or examining surface catalysis.
   
   C. A lot of the research going on today in chemistry is in the properties of surfaces and interfaces. Yet there is little mention on modeling of the concepts related to this; such as surface and interface energy, interface lattice msimatch, symmetry of slabs, etc...
   
   D. The book emphasizes the theories behind doing a calculation, such as the Hartree-Fock method, DFT, force fields, etc.. But there is only some mention on the data that can be generated by a simulation software, and how to use them. The examples I can recall are bond orders, population analysis, radial distribution function, and charge density. Other items that should have been included include density of states (vibrational and electronic), electron localization function, and optical properties such as refractive index or dielectric constant.
   
   Overall, it is still a great book and one worth reading.



2. This summer one undergraduate and I made my first research foray into computation chemistry. This book from one of the best names in the field was a useful and approachable primer to the uninitiated, but also had sufficient depth to be meaningful to a broad audience. The student took this book as a springboard and reference into the primary literature and her own research, and was able to work independently - I finally have the book back for a long enough amount of time to get to read a lot of it for myself! We're writing our first computational communication this fall, so obviously we learned what we're doing!



3. It is a good book to start with for computational chemistry. It covers the concepts and suitable for newbies. However, you need a better book if you are looking how to apply the concepts into computational software.



4. Background: After taking a good undergraduate course in physical chemistry, one should be able to painlessly read this book from cover to cover. It essentially is a book for people new to the subject, an introduction to computational techniques without the troubling gory details.
   
   Content: Both MM and QM methods are treated (For a list of the topics use the 'search inside' function and scroll thru the index).
   The author tries to give the reader an overview of the methods used in modern computational chemistry. He does a good job in making things clear, although the level of the arguments treated is very basic (the word 'essentials' in the title is there for some reason i guess).
   
   One thing Cramer does rather well is underlining the pros and cons of each method, thus giving even non-chemists the chance to get an intuitive grasp of what one should expect from each one of them, and of what their inherent limits are.
   
   One thing to be pointed out is that almost all methods explained are ground state methods. There actually is a chapter on the computation of excited states but it does leave some important things out (e.g. CASSCF).
   As another reviewer pointed out, nothing is said about solids and interfaces, and very little is said about dynamics.
   Also there is very little math. While this may as well be a plus for some readers it may leave others disappointed. The basic equations behind the theories are given and explained, but not derived, nor is it explained how they are implemented in actual software.
   
   :: If you are a chemist not directly involved in physical/computational chemistry, but you are still interested in having a basic grasp of what goes on in those fields without devoting too much time and effort to it, this may as well be the book for you.
   
   
   If you are looking for a book that goes thru the nuts and bolts of computational techniques look elsewhere.
   
   That said, this book is very well written and surely worth reading.

4 comments about Guidebook to Mechanism in Organic Chemistry (6th Edition).

1. This book was recommended to me by a senior lecturer in Organic Chemistry at a Scottish university: A very fine example of a British gentleman - and a very good recommendation he made.
   
   I have always prized this book and return to it again and again, although my current scientific work involves little organic chemistry. The presentation is very considerate to beginners and sympathetic of their problems. Even advanced chemists will appreciate its clear and insightful presentation of the logic behind organic reaction mechanisms.
   
   Peter Sykes' book is certainly a model of clarity and to my mind perhaps the best book ever written on this vast subject. It is certainly my favorite organic chemistry book: All the explanations are clear and helpful; one is never (or very rarely) left dangling at the end of a presentation wondering just what in the world is going on, as seems to happen too often in other texts.
   
   Sykes starts at the basic level of structure and reactivity, proceeds to acid/base equilibria, and addresses subsequent chapters to electrophilic, nucleophilic, radical, carbanion/carbocation reactions, Hammett plots, etc.
   
   Really a wonderful read and an outstanding short reference. Certainly an excellent investment for anyone interested in organic chemistry. How odd most Americans are unfamiliar with it.
   
   (If you value Sykes' presentation, the Royal Society of Chemistry used to have several audio cassettes of his presentations on organic chemistry.)



2. Peter Sykes' guidebook formats more as a reference to organic reactions such as nucleophilic substitution, electrophilic substitution, nucleophilic addition to carbonyl, elimination reactions, radical reactions and symmetry-controlled reactions such as pericyclic reactions. It is well written, clear, and succinct that undergraduate and graduate students will welcome it as a companion to an organic course. Sykes also discusses topics that are often omitted in an introductory text such as carbocations, electron-deficient species, carbanions, and linear free energy relationships. It can be thought of a compact version of Jerry March's Advanced Organic Chemistry, which is widely used as a graduate text. As a purchase guideline, I also purchased Hoffman's "Organic Chemistry: An Intermediate Text", and Bernard Miller's "Advanced Organic Chemistry", which treat the subject of electrocyclic reactions and cycloaddition more thoroughly. The portable size of Sykes makes it an excellent source of reference.



3. I have read this book. Nothing genuine about this book! The content has no difference than that of any textbooks. I threw this book in the trash can. I don't want to resell it because I don't want to waste other people's money and time.



4. The book is a condensed source of information of various different subjects relating to organic chemistry. In saying so it is a general overview of practical organic chemistry. Sykes is clear in his explanation and elucidation on various reaction mechanisms and as he states early on, he does promote a mechanistic perspective of organic chemistry.
   
   Sykes is particularly useful for individuals who have done introductory organic chemistry and are venturing into deeper topics of the subject, i.e. stereochemistry and synthesis as examples (a lot of universities offer courses which purely concentrate on these regions of study).
   
   Now the greatest downfall I see about the text is the price. March's advanced organic chemistry is much more extensive, newer and my personal opinion is that the authorship is better in March's
   
   Another downfall is the age, although a lot of the topics that have been introduced in this book have not changed significantly and therefore dont seriously affect the text's validity; I still feel it should have had an update. This book was published in the 1980's (the late era of the decade).
   
   All I am saying is that Syke's book is a classic, one can learn a lot from it and it is a fairly good reference book, however to my understanding there are better texts of the same genre covering practically the same themes as in this book.
   
   I would strongly recommend any individual interested in this book to have a look at March's Advanced Organic Chemistry.