GoldÐProgress in Chemistry, Biochemistry andTechnologyH. Schmidbaur (ed.)JohnWiley & Sons,Chichester,1999908pages.£250ISBN 0-471-97369-6

This book is a collection of 21 specialist chaptersdescribing recent progressin gold technology (ninechapters),biochemistry(one) and chemistry (11). Forvariousreasons,metallurgicalaspects,theoreticalchem-istry, and physics and solid-state chemistry wereexcluded.It is a pity that a chapteron the influenceofrelativistic effectson gold chemistrywasnot available.

Becauseof my own interests,I turnedto Chapter10first, ‘The biochemistryof gold’ by Shaw.This providesan excellentoverviewof recentadvances,including therole of gold–protein complexes, generation of[Au(CN)2]

ÿ (a potentially active metabolite of goldantiarthritic drugs)and gold(III) (perhapsthe causeoftoxic side reactions)in vivo. Shaw points to possiblefuture developmentsconcerning gold anticancerandanti-HIV agents.Clearly there is still much importantmechanisticgold biochemistryto bedone.

In Chapter11, Strahle reviewsgold(I) and gold(III)compoundswith bondsto nitrogen.This is an informa-tive andreadablechapter.Themysteriesof thechemistryof thehighly explosiveyellow solid formedby additionof ammonia to HAuCl4 or gold(III) oxide (so-called‘fulminating gold’) still remain. The structuresandproperties of N-centred gold clusters such as[(Ph3PAu)5N]2� (stabilizedby aurophilicAu–Au bond-ing, andelegantlystudiedby theeditorof this book)arediscussed.

One of the editor’s two chaptersis on organogoldchemistry(Chapter18).This is anexcellentcomprehen-sivesurveyof nearly100pageswith 489references,andcoversgold(I) complexes[RAuL], thosewith two Au–Cbonds,gold(I), gold(II) and gold(III) complexeswithylide ligands,gold(III) complexeswith 1–4Au–Cbonds,homo-andhetero-metallicAu clusters,andthesynthesisandpropertiesof alkyne–goldcomplexes.This areahasdevelopedrapidly in recentyearsand the presenceofshort Au–Au contacts in organogold(I) complexesiscommon. Oxidative addition to dinuclear bis(ylide)complexes gives rise to unusual bicyclic gold(II)compoundscontaining a discretetransannularAu–Aubond. Auration of aromatic rings to give monoarylgold(III) speciescan be readily achieved.As notedbyPuddephattin Chapter9 (‘Gold metalandgold alloys inelectronics and thin film technology’), organogoldcomplexesareattractiveprecursorsfor chemicalvapourdeposition (CVD) of gold, often alkyl–, vinyl– oralkynyl–gold(I) complexes[R–Au–L], but alsoorgano-gold(III) such as [Me3Au(PMe3)]. He also describesbriefly the important area of self-assembled,orientedmonolayersof alkylthiolsoncleanmetallicgoldsurfaces

with potential applications in microfabrication andmicroelectronics.

A fascinatingpropertyof manycompoundswith Au–Au interactionsof lessthan3.6A is their luminescence.In Chapter 21 (spectroscopicmethods), Bowmakerdiscusseswhether the likely absorption transition isligand-to-metal charge transfer or a metal-centred5d→6p transition.The phenomenonof ‘solvolumines-cence’ is fascinating:colourlesscrystalsof the cyclictrigold complex [Au3(CH3OC=NCH3)3], previouslyirradiatedwith ultraviolet light, emit bright flashesofyellow light on contactwith chloroformor acetone(thework of Balch and co-workers).Bowmakerpoints outthattheonly 197Au NMR signalsobservedto dateareforthe metal and its alloys, although the solid-state31PNMR spectrumof chelatedtetrahedralgold(I) bispho-sphinecomplexescan exhibit four-line patternsdue to1J(Au–P)spin–spincoupling.

In Chapter15 Dyson and Mingos take us from thestable dimeric unit Au2 (dissociation energy 228kJmolÿ1 in the gasphase)throughsmall clusterssuchas[Au7(PPh3)7]

� to the giant [Au39(PPh3)14Cl6]2�, and to

colloidalgolditself. If youareinterestedin metallicgold,then there are chapters on alloys for dental andelectromechanicaluse,ceramicdecoration[which usesgold(I) thiolatessimilar to antiarthritic drugs], refiningand recycling, jewellery (for which hardening byalloying is essential),coinageandmining.

As theeditor saysin his openingsentence,‘Gold is alovely subjectfor everyone’,butwill everyonebeabletoafford to read about it? Unfortunately, at this price,access to the book will be highly restricted. Fewindividualswill beableto buy it andprobablynot manylibrarieseither.Let ushopethat thepublisherscanthinkof a way of makingsuchexcellentmaterialmorewidelyavailable.

PETERJ. SADLER

Universityof Edinburgh,UK

Pharmaceutical Excipients Drugs and thePharmaceutical Sciences, Vol. 94D. E. Bugay and W. P. FindlayMarcel Dekker,New York, 1999xii � 669pages.$250ISBN 0-8247-9373-0

For those involved in pharmaceuticalanalysis andformulation,theDrugsandthePharmaceuticalSciencesseriesfrom MarcelDekkerhasprovidedsuperbreferencematerialsinceits launchover20 yearsago.Pharmaceu-tical Excipients, the94thtitle in theseries,continuesthisline of highly specializedreferenceworks andprovidesin one easy-to-usevolume, valuable spectroscopicinformation on 300 excipientsmost commonlyusedindrugformulationandproduction.Thereis noshortageof

Copyright# 2000JohnWiley & Sons,Ltd. Appl. Organometal.Chem.14, 170–176(2000)

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