Oxford University Press: New York, 1999. 90 pp.
ISBN 0-19- 855890-2. $12.95.

This text is like many of the other Oxford Chemistry Primers in that it is a concise summary of an important area of chemistry and fills a crucial tutorial niche. The text is most suitable for undergraduate and graduate students who have had some introduction to NMR in organic chemistry and are active in research and reading the literature. Students who have never seen an NMR spectrum might find the text challenging. At least one semester of inorganic chemistry instruction is necessary also, as the molecules themselves are not described in detail and an understanding of classic inorganic species such as B₂H₆ is presumed. The only mathematics required is simple algebraic relationships and a pictorial use of vectors.

The text is organized in four chapters: (1) Fundamentals, (2) Structure Determination, (3) Dynamic Processes and NMR, and (4) The Solid State. It is well written and clearly organized, and has an excellent table of contents and index for quick reference to particular subjects. A short but useful bibliography is also included to guide the interested reader toward more detailed and mathematical treatments of the subject.

The first chapter reviews the principles of NMR with a wide range of examples that cleverly echo the simplest features in ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectra. The text clearly demonstrates that all NMR operates on the same physical principles and allows beginning students to expand their working knowledge of chemical shifts and coupling constants. More advanced topics, such as quadrupolar nuclei, are also introduced smoothly in the same discussion. Important pertinent parameters for all the chemical elements are tabulated and there are impressively few typographical errors for a first printing.

The second chapter discusses many factors that may influence chemical shifts and coupling constants in a framework of basic inorganic concepts such as geometry, coordination number, and oxidation state. The information available from more advanced techniques including multiple pulse methods and T₁ experiments is also described. Again, organic chemistry provides several examples as a starting point for understanding, but numerous inorganic examples, often but not always with literature references, clarify and expand the reader's understanding of these techniques.

Chapter 3 covers the study of fluxional processes by NMR, a critical topic for inorganic chemistry, but not often encountered by neophytes in organic chemistry. A clear discussion of relative time scales in resonance spectroscopy is followed by the fundamentals of thermodynamic and kinetic analyses. Again, conceptual elucidation is facilitated by examples from the literature, largely recent. As in Chapter 2, more advanced experiments are discussed in principle, which serve to define often-encountered experiments from the literature including saturation transfer and 2-D exchange spectroscopy.

The final chapter covers solid-state NMR, an area prevalent in the literature but difficult to find accessibly described in undergraduate texts. After reading this chapter a student will understand the advantages and liabilities of solid-state NMR as well as the uses of magic angle spinning and cross polarization.

I would recommend this text as an excellent summary of material with which all graduate students in inorganic chemistry should be familiar. It is a superb value and would also make an excellent supplementary text for advanced undergraduate or first-year graduate courses.