Suggested Reading Paths

The aim and the hope of the authors is to provide, through this book, a unitary perspective of the main problems and challenges related to modeling, control, and diagnosis of chemical batch reactors. A special emphasis is put on the interaction between the development of effective and reliable mathematical models of the plant and on the subsequent design of the control and diagnosis systems. Hence, the recommendation for the reader is to read this monograph as a whole. 

However, depending on the main interests and background of the reader, two main reading paths can be identified. The first, suggested to readers mainly interested in modeling and performance evaluation issues, is composed by Chaps. 2, 3, and 4. Readers mainly interested in control and diagnosis methods are invited to read Chaps. 2, 3, 5, and 6. 

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Thus we adopt the view (see suggested reading 1) that any structure along the reaction path is an intermediate. With modern laser spectroscopy (suggested reading 2), one can now directly probe such structures experimentally. Thus it is a reactive intermediate, because it can be seen spectroscopically, not because it can be put in a bottle for a short time. As we shall see, this revised view of an intermediate is particularly relevant for photochemical and other nonadiabatic processes. 

I suggest the use of infrared spectroscopy for the laboratory tests. Samples of the him can be mounted in the path of the infrared light beam in an infrared spectrometer and the resulting infrared transmission spectra recorded. If your staff is not familiar with infrared spectroscopy or the interpretation of infrared transmission spectra, you might allow them some time to read some basic reference material on this technique. I can provide that for you. The transmission spectrum recorded by the spectrometer is like a fingerprint of the material in the path of the light. It is a pattern that is observed each time that material is tested. 

The fact that you are reading this book suggests that you are undecided or may be open minded about your future plans. Now that you are deep into it, however, you have learned that most of the contributing authors also experienced major periods of indecision at some point in their careers. Career paths are rarely smooth and often have confusing forks and even hairpin turns ... 

If the reaction cell is a square spectrophotometric cell of 1 cm optical path, it is convenient to adopt the so called micro version of the procedure, as suggested by Fisher in [9] in this simple procedure, after the irradiation 0.5 mL of phenanthroline solution are added directly both in the reaction cell and in a cell taken in the dark and the absorbance is read at 510 nm in this conditions the equation in the case of complete absorption of the exciting light is ... 

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