VOLUME XVI. Fast Reactions

Available here.

"The title of this book, "Fast Reactions" might imply to the reader a restricted view of chemical kinetics, invoking images of "instantaneous" processes and select methods for their measurement. Actually, quite the opposite picture is closer to the truth. The developments of modern solution kinetics were thrust at the broad problem of detecting and measuring individual steps in chemical reaction mechanisms. This goal was accomplished by expanding the hitherto restricted kinetic time range to new limits. New methods, capable of time resolution shorter than a millisecond, were therefore introduced. Ultimately, a resolution of the order of 10 -1° to 10 -11 seconds was achieved; at this point, chemical activation begins to yield to processes of a more physical nature, generally accessible to spectroscopic analysis."

"To no one is the problem of making measurements in short times more apparent than to enzymologists. For enzymes are catalysts which carry reactions of exceptional sluggishness into the domain of "fast reactions." This book is therefore aimed at biochemists and chemists engaged in the study of reaction mechanisms, especially those of biological significance. Its use allows the research kineticist to establish a laboratory for studying solution kinetics, where several instruments are available for the investigation of complex reactions throughout the entire chemical time range."

"Each chapter is devoted to a single type of instrument or a closely related group of instruments. The authors, who have successfully built and operated the equipment they describe, are themselves involved in research on chemical kinetics. They have presented complete, self-contained descriptions of the principles and methods of construction of fast reaction instrumentation. The capabilities and limitations (the latter known only too well to the authors) of this equipment have been clearly and frankly stated. The level of treatment should enable the chemist or biochemist, with an elementary knowledge of instrumentation, to plan and construct a fast reaction laboratory, by building appropriate instruments selected from those presented in this volume."