Reichenbacher M., Popp J. Challenges in Molecular Structure Determination

Springer, 2012, 503p.; ISBN: 978-3-642-24389-9The present book is the first English version of the successful book Strukturanalytik organischer und anorganischer Verbindungen that was published in 2007 by Vieweg-Teubner Publishing. The present English edition is intended for a broader group of readers and users. Sound knowledge and experimental experience of the application of modern spectroscopic methods to unravel the structure of organic and inorganic compounds are part nowadays of the scientific background of synthesis chemists, physical chemists, as well as of analysts, biochemists, and pharmacists among other disciplines. For this reason many very good books about spectroscopic methods can be found on the market. Nevertheless, these books focus mainly on the theoretical background of spectroscopy and are limited to the structural analysis of organic
compounds. Only seldom can method-based exercises be found in these books. The use of spectroscopic methods to analyze molecule structures and to infer relations between the structure and features of molecules requires basic as well as extensive applied knowledge about spectroscopy. On the one hand, the right combination of spectroscopic methods has to be tailored as a function of the specific question at hand for one method seldom permits one to solve the analytical problem encountered. On the other hand, the sound interpretation of the collected data is challenging. Unfortunately, these data cannot be, in most cases, interpreted using only the theoretical background of spectroscopy. Rather the experience necessary to solve basic as well as more complex structure analysis problems can only be acquired by intensive training. The main focus of this book is thus not to provide theoretical background but applied exercises presented as challenges. Consequently, the theoretical section is kept quite short and refers to the main relevant literature on the subject. The appropriate literature for each spectroscopic method can be found at the end of the respective chapter. There are many good books written by specialists in the field, therefore, we apologize to colleagues whose work we could not cite because of space limitations.