Symmetry and Spectroscopy: An Introduction to Vibrational and Electronic Spectroscopy

Informal, effective undergraduate-level text introduces vibrational and electronic spectroscopy, presenting applications of group theory to the interpretation of uv, visible, and infrared spectra without assuming a high level of background knowledge. 200 problems with solutions. Numerous illustrations.


Customer Review: simply put

Simply put, this book is MUST HAVE for anyone studying or working with spectroscopy. Whether you study Physical, Analytical, or Inorganic Chemistry, this book is essential. The information is distilled and relevant. Check out your professors' book collections, odds are you will find this classic on their shelves (and probably also see many course examples similar to exercises and examples from it, even if not officially required for your course). The pages will be worn, dog-eared, highlighted, and scribbled on, just like in my copy I have used over and over and over for last 15 years! From Group Theory to Raman to Crystal Field, this book has got it all! Awesome!

Customer Review: Another Dover Bargain in Physical Chemistry

This book has served as a companion text for courses I've taught in Symmetry and Group Theory and in Physical Methods in Inorganic Chemistry for the past two years. It provides a solid background for practicing chemists who will use electronic and vibrational spectroscopy in their everyday research, though it is only an introduction for serious spectroscopists. The book adopts an easy conversational tone that appeals to students but doesn't fail to provide an appropriate level rigor - with one notable exception to be mentioned below. For a students seeking to learn by self-study there is a good supply of problems, with solutions provided, to deepen understanding. The examples are most plentiful in the vibrational spectroscopic sections.



Both photoelectron and UV-Visible spectroscopy are presented, and Harris and Bertolucci do a better job at teaching what electron states are than Cotton does in his well-known "Chemical Applications of Group Theory". Unfortunately, however, electronic spectra of transition metal complexes are given short shrift and ligand-field-theoretic problems are not adequately fleshed out. Equally unfortunate is the fact that the one transition-metal example of vibronic coupling provided in the body of the text is the same example presented by Cotton: the polarized spectra of trans-[Co(en)2Cl2]+ - and the authors have transcribed exactly the same serious error: One of the vibrational modes is wrong and one of the electronic absorption peaks are misassigned as a result.



These problems notwithstanding, this is very good book - I recommend it to students and teachers as an affordable, instructive, and very readable text.
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