Encyclopedia of Chemical Physics and Physical Chemistry - 3 Volume Set

"The Encyclopaedia of Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics" is a major new reference work that any chemist and physicist can turn to for an introduction to an unfamiliar area, an explanation of important experimental and computational techniques, and a description of modern endeavours.

For the practising physicist or chemist the Encyclopaedia would be the place to start when confronted with a new problem or when the techniques of an unfamiliar area might be exploited.

The Encyclopaedia quickly provides the basics, defines the scope of each subdiscipline, and indicates where to go for a more complete and detailed explanation.

For a graduate student in chemistry or physics the Encyclopaedia gives a synopsis of the basics and an overview of the range of activities in which physical principles are applied to chemical problems.

It is also designed to help chemists and physicists read themselves into new areas of chemical physics/physical chemistry when the need arises during their professional careers or even during their doctoral work.

The Editors-in-Chief and the Editorial Board have been chosen from the peak of their fields.Particular attention has been paid to symbols and abbreviations to ensure this Encyclopaedia is as user-friendly as possible.

Care has been taken to ensure that the reading level is suitable for the trained chemist or physicist not necessarily a physical chemist or chemical physicist.

It will lead any of these groups to the salient points of a new field as rapidly as possible and gives pointers as to where to read about the topic in more detail.

It is intended for a reader with a solid undergraduate education in physics or chemistry including mechanics, electricity and magnetism, differential equations, simple matrix algebra, chemical nomenclature and the basics of chemical spectroscopy.

In addition, the reader has knowledge of quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics at the level of an undergraduate physical chemistry text.

The Encyclopaedia is in three major sections: Fundamentals - the mechanics of atoms and molecules and their interactions, the macroscopic and statistical description of systems at equilibrium, and the basic ways of treating reacting systems.The contributions in this section assume a somewhat less sophisticated audience than the two subsequent sections.

At least a portion of each article will inevitably cover material that might also be found in a modern, undergraduate physical chemistry text; Methods - the instrumentation and fundamental theory employed in the major spectroscopic techniques, the experimental means for characterizing materials, the instrumentation and basic theory employed in the study of chemical kinetics, and the computational techniques used to predict the static and dynamic properties of materials; and Applications - specific topics of current interest and intensive research.