ISBN9780495012016

I'm not sure why there are so many negative reviews of this book. I found it to be very solid.

For those of you who don't like it you have 3 options:

either "Instrumental Methods of Analysis" by Willard, Merritt, Dean, Settle; (ISBN 0534081428) which is excellent and a true classic.

or "Chemical Analysis: Modern Instrumentation Methods and Techniques" by Francis Rouessac & Annick Rouessac

or "Chemical Instrumentation: A Systematic Approach" by Strobel and Heineman. This book, however, is very hardware oriented and not a general instrumental analysis text.

I would also recommend that you buy "Statistics and Chemometrics for Analytical Chemistry" by James N. Miller & Jane C. Miller. It does a much better job than the cursory chapters found in regular analytical texts. Get the 4th or 5th edition. For a paperback, this book is ridiculously expensive if you buy new. Try to find a used copy.

While the book by Miller & Miller is good, it's no substitute for a 1 or 2 semester course in stats. A good book for this material might be Statistics for Research, Third Edition by Shirley Dowdy, Stanley Wearden, Daniel Chilko (ISBN 047126735X)

Check out my other reviews for other undergrad. chem books.

This book covers the basics of instrumental analysis well. This is not a book for someone who needs colored illustrations and flashy pictures. The key words do not jump out of the page like many of the new undergraduate text books. The text is to the point. As with any textbook, there are some minor errors, but this book is better than some others I've encountered.

I have to use this textbook for one of my classes, and I must say, it is horrible. The examples for problems in the book hardly give any explanation of what they are doing. The questions at the end of the chapter are very difficult and looking back at the chapter just makes the question even more confusing. I like to use textbooks when I do not understand what is going on in my class, but this one does not help at all! I think the only way you can understand this book is if you are already well educated in the course. Everytime I am assigned problems in the book, I cringe, because I know I am going to be spending hours being more confused than I have ever been in my life.

This is definately not the best textbook in the world. It is excrutiatingly detailed and does not easily guide you through the material, helping you to learn it. On the other hand, its detail is what makes it a phenomenal reference book. In it you can find not only vast amounts of information on your topic, but also references to aid you in researching it further.

I admit it. I couldn't use this book at all when I first started my analysis class but now it has become an invaluable tool in my research and a key in my reference library.

Be aware that even though you may purchase the book not all of its services are up and running. I have had this text for almost 6 months and even though I paid a heavy dollar for its resources that are to include great online aides, the good majority of the aides remain to be in the process of "coming soon" a line that I'm beginning to interpret as never. This isn't the largest set back ever as the hard copy is a great resource, but a notable one.

Another area to watch out for is that there are several incorrect answers in the answer key. Some of the solutions in the key correspond with the last edition and were not properly changed to accommodate the new numbers and slight alterations used in this versions end of chapter exercise... again just another annoyance.

It is a good reference overall, not a great study tool as there are few worked out examples of applying the formulas and concepts. Helpful diagrams though.