What are some good books/websites for Analytical Chemistry?

lou6

I am taking a 1 semester analytical chemistry course with a tough teacher (according to her students), and I want to have the maximum preparation for this course through all the means available.
PS: I am a biology student. Thanks.

AbedeuS

Depends what level your analytical chemistry skills are :), some books will throw you straight into advanced quantum theory, save functions and making you derive schrodingers equation by yourself, weras others will explain the basic idea behind a mass spec / nmr spectrometer, so it is really dependant on what you want.

To be honest, the internet has ALOT of material on spectroscopy, I read alot of chemistry literature on physical chemistry as its my favorite specialisation, but you cant quite get better than the internet, as it will have several differant levels of explanantion.

Although alot of people here may think the internet is a bit shakey, im guessing that because your a 1st year you dont have a dire need for exremely specialised obscure peer reviewed papers on a certain aspect of wave particle duality, and most of the basics are generally uncontraversial enough for wiki to be basically right on.

lou6

I just need materials similar to those found in introductory Analytical Chemistry books!

symbolipoint

You need very good stoichiometry skills (essential, and expected as prerequisites), excellent intermediate algebra skills. You will need to work with quadratic equations, logarithms and exponential formulas. (the Nernst equation for electrochemistry occurs in some topics, and is essentially an exponential equation in altered form). The toughest portion of the course is likely to be acid-base equilibria. You will want to get a head start on studying equilibria of weak acids and weak bases, including polyfunctional ones.

You're a biology student. Have you taken a calculus based fundamental physics-mechanics course yet? That will help you to become an analytical thinker and problem solver. You really must learn to think like that, even though mechanics-physics is a different science than analytical chemistry, your analytical & mathematical behavior (personal qualities) should be the same.

lou6

I didn't actually, but thanks a lot. I'll be focusing on the topics you stated. Do you know any good supplementary book for exercises and revision?

symbolipoint

To make use of the physics course fundamental mechanics for skill-building, enroll in the actual course with the laboratory section. For the actual quantitative chemistry topics, see the website tutorial of the physicsforum member named Borak (Borek?). Also you might look for an analytical chemistry textbook by some authors named Skoog and West.

lou6

Thanks a lot. I just want to know something: I was told that exams in this course are usually harder than book exercises, where the heck must I find extra-problems?

symbolipoint

HOW can you be certain of the truthfulness of what you heard? The exam question might, in fact, be more interesting than the book exercises. The exam questions could, in some cases, be more generalized than the book exercises.

You could benefit by pre-studying the course before you officially enroll in it; you could also use an alternate textbook as a supplement; and by so doing, have a bigger supply of both written instruction and exercise items.

lou6

Thanks!