Lange’s Handbook of Chemistry

Book Preface

This new edition, the fifth under the aegis of the present editor, remains the one-volume source of factual information for chemists, both professionals and students—the first place in which to “look it up” on the spot. The aim is to provide sufficient data to satisfy all one’s general needs without recourse to other reference sources. A user will find this volume of value as a time-saverbecause of the many tables of numerical data which have been especially compiled.

Descriptive properties for a basic group of approximately 4300 organic compounds are compiled in Section 1, an increase of 300 entries. All entries are listed alphabetically according to the senior prefix of the name. The data for each organic compound include (where available) name, structural formula, formula weight, Beilstein reference (or if unavailable, the entry to the Merck Index, 12th ed.), density, refractive index, melting point, boiling point, flash point, and solubility (citing numerical values if known) in water and various common organic solvents. Structural formulas either too complex or too ambiguous to be rendered as line formulas are grouped at the bottom of each facing double page on which the entries appear. Alternative names, as well as trivial names of long-standing usage, are listed in their respective alphabetical order at the bottom of each double page in the regular alphabetical sequence. Another feature that assists the user in locating a desired entry is the empirical formula index.

Section 2 on General Information, Conversion Tables, and Mathematics has had the table on general conversion factors thoroughly reworked. Similarly the material on Statistics in Chemical Analysis has had its contents more than doubled.

Descriptive properties for a basic group of inorganic compounds are compiled in Section 3, which has undergone a small increase in the number of entries. Many entries under the column “Solubility” supply the reader with precise quantities dissolved in a stated solvent and at a given temperature.

Several portions of Section 4, Properties of Atoms, Radicals, and Bonds, have been significantly enlarged. For example, the entries under “Ionization Energy of Molecular and Radical Species” now number740 and have an additional column with the enthalpy of formation of the ions. Likewise, the table on “Electron Affinities of the Elements, Molecules, and Radicals” now contains about 225 entries. The Table of Nuclides has material on additional radionuclides, their radiations, and the neutron capture cross sections.

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Content:

Preface to Fifteenth Edition
Preface to Fourteenth Edition
Preface to First Edition xv
Acknowledgments xvii
Section 1. Organic Compounds
Section 2. General Information, Conversion Tables, and Mathematics
Section 3. Inorganic Compounds
Section 4. Properties of Atoms, Radicals, and Bonds
Section 5. Physical Properties
Section 6. Thermodynamic Properties
Section 7. Spectroscopy
Section 8. Electrolytes, Electromotive Force, and Chemical Equilibrium
Section 9. Physicochemical Relationships
Section 10. Polymers, Rubbers, Fats, Oils, and Waxes
Section 11. Practical Laboratory Information