Harrison and De Mora have revised the first edition of their book, Introductory

Chemistry for the Environmental Sciences, which has an intended reading audience

of college or university undergraduates who are studying or majoring in the environmental

sciences, environmental chemistry, or ecology. Their intent is to present

the basic concepts of chemistry within the context of the thermodynamic universe

known at ‘the environment'

Hoffmann, Michael R.

Caltech Authors - Main

322 BOOK REVIEW
R. M. Harrison and S. J. De Mora: Introductory Chemistry for the Environ-
mental Sciences, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, 1996, 373 pp., ISBN
0-521-48450-2 (paperback) £19.95/U.S.$29.95, ISBN 0-521-48172-4 (hardback)
£55.00/U.S.$80.00.
Harrison and De Mora have revised the first edition of their book, Introductory
Chemistry for the Environmental Sciences, which has an intended reading audience
of college or university undergraduates who are studying or majoring in the envir-
onmental sciences, environmental chemistry, or ecology. Their intent is to present
the basic concepts of chemistry within the context of the thermodynamic universe
known at ‘the environment’. The first three chapters are devoted to providing many
of the underlying basics of general chemistry, inorganic chemistry, and physical
chemistry. The treatment of organic chemistry is relegated to two subsections of
their 3rd chapter. The authors present an overview of many fundamental concepts
starting at the beginning with the nature of atoms and the primary features of atomic
structure and atomic properties (Chapter 1). They then move on to discuss the
nature of the chemical bond, fundamental chemical quantities, and some general
properties of matter. After this general chemistry overview, the authors then pro-
ceed to cover some of the basic features of physical chemistry in Chapter 2 that
are applicable to multiphasic environmental chemistry including chemical kinet-
ics, photochemistry, thermodynamics, equilibria, electrochemistry, and colloid and
surface chemistry. After presenting the essential background material, the authors
then provide a somewhat systematic review of the chemistry of the elements by
major groups and the relevance of each element from an environmental perspective
(Chapter 3). Their relatively short book of 373 pp. has three remaining chapters that
are devoted to analytical chemistry, environmental, biogeochemistry, and selected
cases studies including a lengthy section on soil chemistry. This latter section
should have been the subject of a complete chapter as opposed to a case study.
In a traditional sense the broad review of soil chemistry is not a ‘case study’.
I must commend the authors for taking the time and effort to put together a rel-
atively coherent treatment of environmental chemistry that should provide a useful
introduction to the subject for nonchemistry majors and a suitable review of basic
subject matter with in an environmental context for more experienced chemists.
However, in spite of their excellent efforts, there is still room for improvement.
Some of my concerns are as follows:
I noticed that in several chapters there are no Table captions (e.g., Tables 1.1,
1.2, 1.3, etc.). In the early chapters the treatment can be in some cases quite
sophisticated and in several other cases overly simplistic such as in the case of
chemical reactions and stoichiometry. The authors should realize, that in order to
be an academic major in science or engineering at most universities, that students
will hve had some high school chemistry and most probably freshman chemistry
in the form of either general chemistry or introductory physical chemistry.
BOOK REVIEW 323
In Chapter 2, on chemical kinetics, units are used often without any introduction
or explanation. For example, the rate of the reaction of NO2 and O2 is expressed
as a pseudo second-order reaction with reaction rate units of ppm hr−1, when just
prior to that presentation the units were given as M s−1.
I would have liked to see the formal treatment of the subjects of thermody-
namics and equilibria presented before the treatment of chemical kinetics, which
is a normal order of consideration. We generally learn to deal first with the basic
principles of chemical thermodynamics, then move on to the quantitative treat-
ment of reactions at equilibrium, and finally address the kinetics of both reversible
and irreversible reactions. The authors also might place more emphasis in their
treatment of chemical thermodynamics on the lack of a formal relationship (with
a few exceptions) between thermodynamics and kinetics. But the authors must
be commended for using chemical examples that are relevant to environmental
systems.
Sometimes the authors make statements that are not true within the current
understanding of environmental chemistry. For example, they state on p. 67 that
heterogeneous catalysis of SO2 oxidation is ‘of minor importance in the atmo-
spheric oxidation of SO2’. The implication within this context is that the primary
pathway is oxidation by OH (hydroxyl radical) in the gas phase as stated on p. 291.
The statements is somewhat misleading as it ignores the role of clouds and haze
aerosol in this process. For example, it is predicted from large-scale atmospheric
chemistry models that on a global basis more than 80% of SO2 is converted
heterogeneously in clouds.
In their treatment of ionic strength effects on solution equilibria, the authors
need to mention that other formulations aside from the normal Debye–Huckel
equation are used to determine activity coefficients over a range of ionic strengths
encountered in aquatic systems (e.g., from I D 0:001 M in freshwaters, to 0.7 M
in seawater, to 15 M in liquid sulfuric acid aerosols in the stratosphere).
The authors define pH correctly in terms of pH D − log aHC , but then in
their sample problems they simply use the concentration of the hydronium ion
as obtained from a pH measurement with a glass electrode (e.g., pH D 7:40, thus
TH3OCU D 10−7:4 without any further explanation.
In Table 2.9, which gives the standard reduction potentials for a range of half-
reactions, I note that many important environmental oxidants such as Mn(III)OOH,
O3, OH, and HOCl are missing. Furthermore, the authors write the corresponding
half-reactions as irreversible reactions with a single arrow instead of reversible
reactions with an equilibrium double arrow.
A major flaw in their general treatment of the subjects is the outdated nature of
the principal references and recommended readings. For example, in Chapter 2 the
latest reference included is 1988 and the most recommended reading is dated 1991.
Thus, most of the examples and primary citations are 10 to 20 years out-of-date.
Much has been discovered over the last 10 years.
324 BOOK REVIEW
The authors did a reasonable job reviewing the environmental significance of
the individual elements of the periodic chart. However, they shortchange some
elements such as Se and Br, which have a substantial body of chemistry of en-
vironmental importance. In other cases, such as the chemistry of Cr they note that
Cr(VI) and Cr(III) are toxic but they fail to note that Cr(III) also is a micro-nutrient.
In the case of Mn, they miss the potential role of Mn(III) completely.
The authors spent a great deal of space up front treating the kinetics of chemical
reactions but then in most of their examples they simply present reaction stoi-
chiometries without addressing either the kinetic aspects or the detailed chemical
mechanisms. This may give the uninitiated reader the feeling that if one writes a
stoichiometry, it is virtual the same as providing a reaction mechanism. In a future
edition, the authors will need to emphasize the process of going from a reaction
stoichiometry, to a kinetic equation, and finally to a reaction mechanism.
Chapter 4, which focuses on environmental analytical chemistry, is a very use-
ful overview for a beginner in the environmenal field. However, the inclusion of
thin-layer chromatography and paper chromatography seems to be unnecessary
given the many more modern chromatographic techniques that are used today. This
section should have been deleted in the 2nd edition.
In the new chapter on environmental biogeochemistry (Chapter 5), the authors
give a broad outline of elemental cycles but they should have provided more de-
tailed chemistry of the various pathways indicated in schematic form. In general,
the student problems they present are very qualitative in nature and are not quantit-
atively challenging even though their treatment of thermodynamics, equilibria and
kinetics is reasonably quantitative.
Their final chapter (Chapter 6) is called case studies, but in effect it is a limited
treatment of subject matter that was too short for a full chapter but not really a
serious treatment of case studie as most of us know them. For example, the refer-
ence list for Chapter 6 has as the most recent cited reference a paper by Gregory
and Jackson that appeared in 1983. Much could have been done to make this
chapter more modern, more current, and more relevant. I also note that much of
the treatment of carbonate chemistry in Chapter 6 had been presented previously
in Chapter 2.
In conclusion, I think this book provides a useful introduction to the subject for
nonchemistry majors and a suitable review of basic environmental chemistry. The
shortcomings might be addressed in a future edition.
W. M. Keck Laboratories, MICHAEL R. HOFFMANN
California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, Cal., U.S.A.


R. M. Harrison and S. J. De Mora: Introductory Chemistry for the Environmental Sciences [book review]

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R. M. Harrison and S. J. De Mora: Introductory Chemistry for the Environmental Sciences [book review]

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