What this book contains

I. What This Book Does and Does Not Contain... 

This book contains what I call an interlude on the logic, the psychology, and the serendipity of scientific discoveries. Readers may wonder what the correlation is between that short Chapter 9 and diazo chemistry. The specific reason for including it was to elucidate the dediazoniation mechanism of aromatic diazonium ions, but I expanded this mechanistic discussion (Sec. 8.3) in the interlude by including general aspects originating in the philosophy of science as developed by Karl Popper and Thomas S. Kuhn, ideas which, in my opinion, should be better known by all scientists working in chemical research. 

To work effectively together, chemists and chemical engineers need to know how to communicate. This was the premise for the short course mentioned above and is the basis on which this book is written. Hence, the book does not focus on the derivation of mathematical formulae, but rather on the use of the governing principles in process design. Before I describe what the book contains, it may be useful here to take a brief look at what a typical chemical engineering degree course involves. 

Many of the programs in this book contain special control characters (cursor controls, color keys, reverse video, and so on). To make it easy to know exactly what to type when entering one of these programs into your computer, we have established the following listing conventions. 

Perhaps I should say what this book is not about. It does not contain the standard number-crunching problems found in scientific texts—most often these do not stimulate creativity, nor do they have artistic appeal. Also, the problems and topics in this book are not of a linear variety, where variables are fed into an equation and a succinct answer is returned. In fact, many of the exercises are of the stop-and-think variety and can be explored without using a computer. 

It is important at the start to have a clear conception of what this book is about I don t want to raise false hopes or expectations. The science of heterogeneous catalysis is now so extensive that one person can only hope to write about a small part of it. I have tried to select a part of the field with which I am familiar, and which while significant in size is reasonably self-contained. Metal-catalysed reactions of hydrocarbons have been, and still are, central to my scientific work they have provided a lifetime s interest. Age cannot wither nor custom stale their infinite variety. 

Why does this book contain a chapter on financial management basics, and what is it to accomplish Tlie idea for it originated in a study initiated by this author to identify emerging knowledge needs in the practice of safety. That study is supported by the frequent reference in the current issue of BCSPs Comprehensive Practice Examination Guide to such topics as finance, management science, budgets, and the like. 

Inevitably, this book contains quite a lot about law and control measures. It assumes no previous knowledge of either on the part of the reader. An attempt has been made to separate legal issues, in an effort to concentrate on the principles involved rather than to produce a legalistic guide to what are inevitably minimum standards. This has not always been possible, and it is hoped that readers will agree that clarity has prevailed. 

The title of this book contains the phrase from structures to applications . Any application is based on a certain property or properties. In turn, macroscopic properties are determined by an interplay of molecular structures and interactions see Fig. 1.10. There is an interesting relationship between the vertices of the triangle in Fig. 1.10 knowledge of any two vertices completely determines the third. Interactions depend on what interacts with what, and hence are related to molecular structures. We have discussed structures of PLCs in some detail, culminating in Table 1.1. To conclude this chapter, let us now make a list of essential properties of PLCs. 

For molecules similar to safrole or allylbenzene we take the work done on any terminal alkene such as 1-heptene, 1 octene. Another term to look for is olefin which is a term for a doublebond containing species. What we then look for are articles about these olefins where the functional groups we are looking for are formed. Articles with terminology like methyl ketones from (P2P), ketones from , amines from etc. Or when we want to see about new ways to aminate a ketone (make final product from P2P) we look for any article about ketones where amines are formed. Sound like science fiction to you Well, how do you think we came up with half the recipes in this book It works ... 

The single dose of a drug is mo.stly derived from experience it is only possible in a very few cases to calculate it from the activity of the constituents. However, as many herbal drugs arc only weakly active and contain non-toxic substances, i.e, the therapeutic index is large, exceeding the dose is usually only of minor significance nevertheless, the pharmacist must know what the exceptions are in this book, the sections on Side effects and Making the tea draw particular attention to such cases, c.g. arnica flowers, liquorice root, etc. 

The secrets of alchemy revealed for divination and self-discovery. For hundreds, even thousands, of years, the magical laws of alchemy have been denied us. Does this ancient art really have the power to turn lead into gold Why is its wisdom shrouded in mystery And what relevance does it have today This book, which contains 96 pages illustrated with traditional engravings and woodcuts, answers these questions and more. By interpreting the texts and illustrations of ancient manuscripts, this work enables the participant to reveal for her/himself how the symbolism can help choices made in their own lives"... 

The biological activity of a compound can often be affected dramatically by the presence of even a single fluorine substituent that is placed in a particular position within the molecule. There are diverse reasons for this, which have been discussed briefly in the preface and introduction of this book. A few illustrative examples of bioactive compounds containing a single fluorine substituent are given in Fig. 3.1. These include what is probably the first example of enhanced bioactivity due to fluorine substitution, that of the corticosteroid 3-1 below wherein Fried discovered, in 1954, that the enhanced acidity of the fluorohydrin enhanced the activity of the compound.1 Also pictured are the antibacterial (3-fluoro amino acid, FA (3-2), which acts as a suicide substrate enzyme inactivator, and the well-known anti-anthrax drug, CIPRO (3-3). 

Having said this, it was felt therefore that there is a need for a book addressing analysis and characterisation of polymers from the point of view of what we wish to call the primary analytical question. Many excellent textbooks and reference works exist which address one or more individual analytical techniques, see, for example, references [1-10]. These books form the basis of the knowledge of the technique expert. They also contain many excellent and varied examples on successful applications of analytical techniques to polymer analysis and characterisation. There are also books which address the multitude of analytical techniques applied in polymer analysis, see, for example, references [11-24], However, a synthetic chemist may wish to know the constitution of his/her polymer chain, a material scientist may want to find out the reasons why a fabricated sample had failed. What technique is best or optimal to study chain constitution will depend on the situation. Polymer failure may result from morphological features, which needs to be avoided, a contaminant, a surface property degradation, etc. When a sample has been processed, e.g., a film blown, molecular orientation may be the key parameter to be studied. A formulation scientist may wish to know why an additive from a different supplier performs differently. It is from such points of view that polymer analysis and characterisation is addressed in this book. 

Notice that there is always some package containing everything, whether or not it is explicitly delineated. This illustration forms a package, a world of its own. Outside this book, there may well be definitions of things called Finance, but we know there is no guarantee that what we and they mean by Finance are the same. 

Math can get pretty technical — whether you want it to or not. So you ll find this book to be pretty self-contained. All you need to get you through the technical formulas and complicated algebraic manipulations is found right here in this book. You won t need a table of values or computer manual to understand what 1 present here. 

The four chapters in this part contain general plans of attack — how you approach a word problem and what you do with all those words. I introduce the basic vocabulary of math in word problems, and I outline the steps you use for solving any kind of word problem. You see how to work your way through the various units linear, area, volume, rate. And finally, I use a grand example of handling a math word problem to demonstrate the various techniques you use to solve the rest of the problems in the book. 

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