Wiley: New York, 1997. Part A, cloth: ISBN 0471163945. $79.95. Part B, cloth: ISBN 0471163929. $79.95. Set, cloth: ISBN 0471194069. $145.00.

My first exposure to Infrared and Raman Spectra of Inorganic and Coordination Compounds by K. Nakamoto was as a graduate student using infrared spectroscopy to identify reaction products of inorganic reactions. My research advisor's dogeared copy of the 3rd edition of this book was a valuable resource in interpreting these spectra. My own copy of the 4th edition (1986) has been a valuable reference in teaching inorganic chemistry and working with undergraduate students attempting to synthesize novel organometallic compounds. The 5th edition of this classic monograph has been split into two volumes, Part A: Theory and Applications in Inorganic Chemistry (387 pages) and Part B: Applications in Coordination, Organometallic, and Bioinorganic Chemistry (384 pages).

Part A consists of two sections. The first section deals with the theories of vibrational spectroscopy. The section begins with the origin of molecular spectra, then covers the origin of infrared and Raman spectra, normal coordinates and vibrations, symmetry elements, point groups, group theory, and the selection rules for infrared and Raman vibrational transitions between 100 and 10,000 wavenumbers. The different theories for assigning structure from spectra and analyzing spectra given the structure are covered next. These topics include potential fields and force constants, solution of the secular equation, vibrational frequencies of isotopic molecules including metalisotope spectroscopy, and intensity of infrared absorptions. Raman spectroscopy, including depolarization of Raman lines, intensity of Raman scattering, and resonance Raman spectra, is also discussed. The section ends with a discussion of vibrational analysis of crystals, lattice vibrations, polarized spectra of single crystals, and vibrational analysis of ceramic superconductors. This material has been expanded and updated from the earlier editions.

The second section of part A is a well-organized review of the application of vibrational spectroscopy of the smaller main group inorganic molecules. The material is organized by size and geometry of the molecules. There are separate chapters on molecules containing from 2 to 12 atoms. The section ends with chapters on metal cluster, boron, carbon, silicon and germanium, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, and selenium compounds. There are an extensive number of references to the primary literature.

The final section of Part A contains ten appendices. These include point groups with character tables, the G and F matrix elements of typical molecules, and group frequency charts for inorganic groups, which have been expanded from the 4th edition. There are also new appendices for matrix algebra, site symmetry for the 230 space groups, and correlation tables for use with the correlation method of analysis of vibrational spectra.

Part B is a review of the infrared and Raman spectroscopy of the large molecules of inorganic chemistry. The book contains three sections: coordination metal chemistry, organometallic chemistry, and bioinorganic chemistry. The section on coordination chemistry is organized by ligand and concentrates on the metal-ligand transitions. There are separate chapters for the common ligands including, but not limited to, ammines, pyridine, nitro, aquo, alkoxide, amino acid, oxalato, sulfate, urea, cyano, dioxygen, dihydrogen, and halogens. There is also a chapter on the vibrational spectroscopy of metal-metal bonds.

The section on organometallic chemistry is similarly arranged by ligand and includes separate discussions on metal-alkyl, vinyl, acetylenic, phenyl, halogeno, p-, and cylclopentadienyl complexes. The section on bioinorganic chemistry includes an updated review of the vibrational spectroscopy of myoglobin, hemoglobin, cytochromes, hemerythrins, hemocyanins, blue copper proteins, and iron-sulfur proteins, with a new section on metal complexes with nucleic acids.

Part A should work very well as a textbook in a senior undergraduate or graduate-level special topics course on vibrational spectroscopy. Together, Parts A and B would be very useful reference books for chemists working in the areas of coordination chemistry, organometallic chemistry, and bioinorganic chemistry.