trends in analytical chemistry, vo1.15, no.4, 1998 VII

Advanced materials testing

Handbook of Advanced Materials Testing, edited by N.R Cheremisi- noff and P.N. Cheremisinoff, Marcel Dekker, New York, 1995, $195.00, xii + 1019 pages, ISBN 0-8247-9196-7

The Handbook of Advanced Ma- terials Testing contains 52 papers categorized into three parts, namely "Structural Characterization Meth- ods", "Interface and Structural Com- posite Test Methods", and "Properties Testing of Polymers and Composites". Altogether there are 85 contributors and 3748 references throughout the book. Not all papers are surveys such as "Nuclear methods of materials analysis", furthermore a lot of papers describe a special inves- tigation on a special specimen.

The handbook treats investigations on all kinds of materials, from metals and metallic alloys to very special or- ganic compounds via ceramics, plas- tics, inorganic compounds, glasses, composites, and fibrous composites.

Sometimes the heading of a paper is misleading when searching for a certain method. For example, one would hardly expect to find a survey on acoustic emission under the head- ing "Fatigue crack detection and data analysis".

The interested reader finds many fields of materials testing and other things within this handbook starting from the "Nuclear methods of ma- terials analysis" via "The applications of electron holography", "Durability of ceramics", and "Dynamics propa- gation of plastics" to the "Sampling and analysis of light hydrocarbons in volcanic gases".

What this reviewer missed were papers on very new and important fields and methods such as: "Charac- terization of epotactic growth and misfit dislocations by high resolution X-ray diffraction", "Reflectometry of X- rays for measuring thickness, density, and surface roughness of thin filn~", "Combination of neutron diffraction (applying isotopic substitution) and X-ray diffraction to evaluate the struc-

ture of metallic glasses", and, last but not least, "EXAFS and XANES", i.e. extended X-ray absorption fine struc- ture and X-ray absorption near edge structure for the evaluation of the nearest atomic neighbourhood.

The handbook has an index of 10 pages. The average length of each of the 51 papers amounts to 19.4 pages, with single papers ranging between 6 and 90 pages. In this respect, it is strange that there are only 26 pages

devoted to the "nuclear methods of materials analysis", but for "crack pro- pagation modes in composites" 90 pages are available.

The 9th book of the materials en- gineering series should, as for the eight preceding books, be available at all technical libraries.

SIEGFRIED STEEB

ProfessorS. Steeb is at the Max-Planck- Institut f~r Metallforschunb Stuttgart, Germany.

Applied pyrolysis handbook

Applied Pyrolysis Handbook, edited by TR Wampler, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, N~, 1995, $135.00,x + 361 pages, ISBN 0-8247-9446-X

Pyrolysis techniques often offer a unique possibility for routine analysis (fingerprinting) of complex non-vo- latile, insoluble and opaque organic materials which are inaccessible to conventional gas or liquid chromato- graphy. The book, in its fairly compre- hensive coverage, fills the gap in the relevant literature that has existed since a comprehensive guide to pyro- lysis was published by Irwin in 1982.

The book consists of 11 inde- pendent chapters. It is application- oriented and the contents reflect the title well. The majority of chapters discuss applications to a particular real sample type: polymers, environ- mental, forensic, microorganisms and cultural heritage materials. Within the chapters the applications are sorted by the type of sample rather than the analytical technique used. The lists of citations at the end of each chapter are far from comprehensive but the references given seem to have been carefully chosen.

Reliable examples of analyses of as many of different sample types as possible are given. The publications cited are generally readily accessible. The upper cutoff for references is

1993 but in half of the chapters refer- ences newer than 1990 are very scarce. The chapters are written by experts and the overall quality of presentation is high.

The first two chapters (by Warn- pler) offer a concise and easy-to-read introductory text on the fundamentals of pyrolysis, sample handling, in- strumeutafion and fields of applica- tions.

The lack of information on manu- facturers of general-purpose pyro- lysers is compensated in the third chapter (by Maddock and Ottley) by an extensive manufacturer's view on advantages and limitations of pyro- lysis MS techniques. Three chapters are devoted to the analysis of polymers. Tsuge and Ohtani discuss the determination of microstructures of polyolefins as well as degradation mechanlsms of polyesters (thermo- plastics) and polyamides (nylons). Analysis of polar macromolecules such as polymerized methacrylates, esters, amides and'~etha~es, and sur- factants is dealt with by Washall.

Shedrinsky and Baer give an excel- lent review (supported by their own research) of the application of analy- tical pyrolysis to the study of materials of art and archeology (e.g. waxes, natural resins, amber, paints). The scope of the chapter on environmen- tal analysis (atmospheric aerosols, waters, sediments and some ecologi-