Summer Book Reviews

Silver in Organic Chemistry (ed Michael Harmata)
Wiley 2010 - £73.50

This multi-author work is dedicated to Chris Schmid, the Associate Editor of OPRD who died a few years ago when in his 40s.  The book adequately covers the literature of use of silver in organic chemistry in a comprehensive way, but the literature is only to 2008.  For the process chemist, the final chapter “ A Critical Comparison: Copper Silver and Gold” is what is needed – we want to be able to choose the best catalyst for the job.  None of the chapters focus on efficiency of use, substrate to catalyst ratio and turnover, so the process chemist cannot judge whether the extra cost of silver (over copper) is worthwhile.  As the final chapter concludes “ Most of the investigations in the area of coinage metal catalysis only provide data that do not allow a sound comparison of the catalytic activity or selectivity of the different metal complexes. In an often random manner, not only the metal but also the counterions and/or ligands and/or solvents are changed and perhaps the reaction temperature as well.  One gets the impression that the complexes that were at hand were the ones to be tested, not the ones that scientifically make sense at that point of the investigation”

This quotation says it all!

For those wanting to know more about coinage metals in catalysis, it is perhaps better to look at the special issue of Chemical Reviews, 2008, devoted to this subject.

Solvents and Solvent Effects in Organic Chemistry (4th Updated and Enlarged Edition) by C Reichardt and T Welton
Wiley-VCH, 2011 - £130

A new edition of this highly regarded book has been long awaited.  The chapters from previous editions have been updated and include references up to 2009 with a few in 2010.  The new author, Tom Welton of Imperial College, as well as helping to update existing chapters, has also written a new chapter on “Solvents and Green Chemistry” which covers green solvent selection as well as focusing on supercritical carbon dioxide, water, ionic liquids, PEGs and biomass-derived solvents, such as ethyl lactate, methyl-THF and limonene.

Overall this is an excellent book with a phenomenal number of references and comprehensive index.  The 692 pages are excellent value for money.

Practical Synthetic Organic Chemistry: Reactions, Principles and Techniques (ed S Caron)
Wiley 2011, 872 pages - £60.50

Unusually, this book on organic chemistry has been written by process chemists (mostly from Pfizer) and not by academics.  So therefore there is an industrial slant to the writing, with an emphasis on practicality, scalability and efficiency, with lots of examples from OPRD papers.  The final chapter is entitled “ Practical Chemistry Concepts: Tips for the Practising Chemist or Things They Don’t Teach You in School”

I would imagine this will be a popular teaching text in universities but it should also be read by process chemists for an insight into good synthetic organic chemistry and route design.  It looks excellent value for money.