These sixteen fascinating essays investigate how political, economic and material changes in the sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe also transformed the perception of nature, ideas about science, art and technology. Topics include:
* the Dutch tulip-mania of 1637
* alchemy and commercial exchange in the Holy Roman Empire
* the role of merchants in the origins of the Wunderkammer
* and Spanish sea charts and territorial claims.

Small systems are a very active area of research and development due to improved instrumentation that allows for spatial resolution in the range of sizes from one to 100 nm. In this size range, many physical and chemical properties change, which opens up new approaches to the study of substances and their practical application. This affects both traditional fields of knowledge and many other new fields including physics, chemistry, biology, etc. This book highlights new developments in statistical thermodynamics that answer the most important questions about the specifics of small systems - when one cannot apply equations or traditional thermodynamic models.

Volume 3 of the 5-volume Quantum Nanochemistry presents the chemical reactivity throughout the molecular structure in general and chemical bonding in particular by introducing the bondons as the quantum bosonic particles of the chemical field, localization, from Huckel to Density Functional expositions, especially in relation to how chemical principles of electronegativity and chemical hardness decide the global chemical reactivity and interaction. The volume presents the fundamental and advanced concepts, principles, and models as well as their first and novel combinations and applications in quantum (physical) chemical theory of bonding, molecular reactivity, and aromaticity.

Multidimensional Lithium-Ion Battery Status Monitoring focuses on equivalent circuit modeling, parameter identification, and state estimation in lithium-ion battery power applications. It explores the requirements of high-power lithium-ion batteries for new energy vehicles and systematically describes the key technologies in core state estimation based on battery equivalent modeling and parameter identification methods of lithium-ion batteries, providing a technical reference for the design and application of power lithium-ion battery management systems. Reviews Li-ion battery characteristics and applications. Covers battery equivalent modeling, including electrical circuit modeling and parameter identification theory Discusses battery state estimation methods, including state of charge estimation, state of energy prediction, state of power evaluation, state of health estimation, and cycle life estimation Introduces equivalent modeling and state estimation algorithms that can be applied to new energy measurement and control in large-scale energy storage Includes a large number of examples and case studies This book has been developed as a reference for researchers and advanced students in energy and electrical engineering.

This book covers a selection of recent research studies and new developments in physics and chemistry in micro and nanoscale materials. It brings together research contributions from eminent experts in the field from both academic and industry, providing the latest developments in advanced materials chemical domains.

Nanostructured oxide materials - ultra-thin films, nanoparticles and other nanometer-scale objects - play prominent roles in many aspects of our every-day life, in nature and in technological applications, among which is the all-oxide electronics of tomorrow. Due to their reduced dimensions and dimensionality, they strongly interact with their environment: gaseous atmosphere, water or support. Their novel physical and chemical properties are the subject of this book, from both a fundamental and an applied perspective. Oxide Thin Films and Nanostructures reviews and illustrates the various methodologies for their growth, fabrication, experimental and theoretical characterization. The role of key parameters such as film thickness, nanoparticle size and support interactions in driving their fundamental properties is underlined. At the ultimate thickness limit, two-dimensional oxide materials are generated, whose functionalities and potential applications are described. The emerging field of cation mixing is mentioned, which opens new avenues for engineering many oxide properties, as witnessed by natural oxide nanomaterials such as clay minerals, which, beyond their role at the Earth's surface, are now widely used in a whole range of human activities. Oxide nanomaterials are involved in many interdisciplinary fields of advanced nanotechnologies. Catalysis, photocatalysis, solar energy materials, fuel cells, corrosion protection, and biotechnological applications are amongst the areas where they are making an impact. The book outlines prototypical examples. A cautious glimpse into future developments of scientific activity is finally ventured to round off the presentation.

Acids and bases are ubiquitous in chemistry. Our understanding of them, however, is dominated by their behaviour in water. Transfer to non-aqueous solvents leads to profound changes in acid-base strengths and to the rates and equilibria of many processes: for example, synthetic reactions involving acids, bases and nucleophiles; isolation of pharmaceutical actives through salt formation; formation of zwitter- ions in amino acids; and chromatographic separation of substrates. This book seeks to enhance our understanding of acids and bases by reviewing and analysing their behaviour in non-aqueous solvents. The behaviour is related where possible to that in water, but correlations and contrasts between solvents are also presented. Fundamental background material is provided in the initial chapters: quantitative aspects of acid-base equilibria, including definitions and relationships between solution pH and species distribution; the influence of molecular structure on acid strengths; and acidity in aqueous solution. Solvent properties are reviewed, along with the magnitude of the interaction energies of solvent molecules with (especially) ions; the ability of solvents to participate in hydrogen bonding and to accept or donate electron pairs is seen to be crucial. Experimental methods for determining dissociation constants are described in detail. In the remaining chapters, dissociation constants of a wide range of acids in three distinct classes of solvents are discussed: protic solvents, such as alcohols, which are strong hydrogen-bond donors; basic, polar aprotic solvents, such as dimethylformamide; and low-basicity and low polarity solvents, such as acetonitrile and tetrahydrofuran. Dissociation constants of individual acids vary over more than 20 orders of magnitude among the solvents, and there is a strong differentiation between the response of neutral and charged acids to solvent change. Ion-pairing and hydrogen-bonding equilibria, such as between phenol and phenoxide ions, play an increasingly important role as the solvent polarity decreases, and their influence on acid-base equilibria and salt formation is described.

This book is a reissue of a classic Oxford text, and provides a comprehensive treatment of electron paramagnetic resonance of ions of the transition groups. The emphasis is on basic principles, with numerous references to publications containing further experimental results and more detailed developments of the theory. An introductory survey gives a general understanding, and a general survey presents such topics as the classical and quantum resonance equations, the spin-Hamiltonian, Endor, spin-spin and spin-lattice interactions, together with an outline of the known behaviour of ions of each of the five transition groups, at the experimentalist's level. Finally a theoretical survey, using group theory and symmetry properties, discusses the fundamentals of the theory of paramagnetism.

Time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) describes the quantum dynamics of interacting electronic many-body systems formally exactly and in a practical and efficient manner. TDDFT has become the leading method for calculating excitation energies and optical properties of large molecules, with accuracies that rival traditional wave-function based methods, but at a fraction of the computational cost. This book is the first graduate-level text on the concepts and applications of TDDFT, including many examples and exercises, and extensive coverage of the literature. The book begins with a self-contained review of ground-state DFT, followed by a detailed and pedagogical treatment of the formal framework of TDDFT. It is explained how excitation energies can be calculated from linear-response TDDFT. Among the more advanced topics are time-dependent current-density-functional theory, orbital functionals, and many-body theory. Many applications are discussed, including molecular excitations, ultrafast and strong-field phenomena, excitons in solids, van der Waals interactions, nanoscale transport, and molecular dynamics.

Neutron Protein Crystallography is one of the first books dedicated to the emerging field of neutron protein crystallography (NPC). The text covers all of the practical aspects of NPC, from the basic background of neutron scattering and diffraction, to the technical details of neutron facilities, growth of high-quality crystals, and data analysis. The final chapter is devoted to providing many examples of using NPC to investigate a wide range of different proteins. It demonstrates how NPC can explore hydrogen bonds, protonation and deprotonation of amino acid residues, hydration structures, and hydrogen-to-deuterium exchange ratios.
To avoid redundancy with other textbooks on X-ray protein crystallography (XPC), this book assumes a familiarity with the basics of XPC and strives to highlight and explain the differences between XPC and NPC. It is therefore especially useful for X-ray protein crystallographers who are eager to have a sound, scientific basis for judging if NPC is the right technique for furthering their experimental programs.

Bio-nanocomposites combine the enhanced properties of commercial polymer nanocomposites with the low environmental impact of biodegradable material, making them a topic of great current interest. Because of their tremendous role in reducing dependency on commercial non-biodegradable polymers, and their environmentally-friendly nature, bio-nanocomposites need to be studied in greater detail. In this book, recent advancements in their development are brought together in a single text, to provide researchers with a thorough insight into the various systems, and to open up future perspectives. Although the commercial applications of these bio-nanocomposites are in their infancy, these materials have a huge commercial potential. In setting out the next generation of advances in nanocomposite technology, this book opens the way for further developments in the field.
Describing the subject as a whole, from a basic introduction to the more specific systems and advancements, this book can be used both as a professional reference and for teaching purposes.

Primarily intended for postgraduate students and researchers in the fields of condensed matter science, chemical physics and material science, who plan to use the muon spin rotation, relaxation amd resonance (mSR) techniques, this book combines for the first time a detailed discussion of the physical information contained in the measured polarization functions with real-life examples taken from the literature.
It is divided in three main parts. The first part presents some typical results of the application of mSR and explains the basic principles involved. The second part is the core of this book. It presents a comprehensive discussion of the measured polarisation functions. In the third part we analyse in four chapters selected examples taken from the following fields: diffusion properties of muon and muonium, magnetism, superconductivity, and muonium centres in materials. The book is completed by an epilogue and eight appendices.

Conjugated polymers have important technological applications, including solar cells and light emitting displays. They are also active components in many important biological processes. In recent years there have been significant advances in our understanding of these systems, owing to both improved experimental measurements and the development of advanced computational techniques. The aim of this book is to describe and explain the electronic and optical properties of conjugated polymers. It focuses on the character and energetic ordering of the electronic states and relates these properties to experimental observations in real systems. A number of important optical and electronic processes in conjugated polymers are also described.

Brownian motion - the incessant motion of small particles suspended in a fluid - is an important topic in statistical physics and physical chemistry. This book studies its origin in molecular scale fluctuations, its description in terms of random process theory and also in terms of statistical mechanics. A number of new applications of these descriptions to physical and chemical processes, as well as statistical mechanical derivations and the mathematical background are discussed in detail. Graduate students, lecturers, and researchers in statistical physics and physical chemistry will find this an interesting and useful reference work.

This book provides a critical review of the equilibrium elastic properties of rubber, together with the kinetic-theory background. It is suitable for the non-specialist and the emphasis is on the physical reality embodied in the mathematical formulations. Polymer science had developed greatly since the second edition of this text in 1958, and the two main advances - the refinements of the network theory and associated thermodynamic analysis, and the development of the phenomenological or non-molecular approach to the subject - are both reflected in the structure of this third edition.

The structural mechanics of proteins that fold into functional shapes, polymers that aggregate and form clusters, and organic macromolecules that bind to inorganic matter can only be understood through statistical physics and thermodynamics. This book reviews the statistical mechanics concepts and tools necessary for the study of structure formation processes in macromolecular systems that are essentially influenced by finite-size and surface effects. Readers are introduced to molecular modeling approaches, advanced Monte Carlo simulation techniques, and systematic statistical analyses of numerical data. Applications to folding, aggregation, and substrate adsorption processes of polymers and proteins are discussed in great detail. Particular emphasis is placed on the reduction of complexity by coarse-grained modeling, which allows for the efficient, systematic investigation of structural phases and transitions. Providing insight into modern research at this interface between physics, chemistry, biology, and nanotechnology, this book is an excellent reference for graduate students and researchers.

Ordinary foams such as the head of a glass of beer and more exotic ones such as solid metallic foams, raise many questions for the physicist and have attracted a substantial research community in recent years. The book describes the results of extensive experiments , computer simulations and theories in an authoritative yet formal style, making ample use of illustrations and photographs.

This book provides a comprehensive survey of modern molecular astrophysics. It includes an introduction to molecular spectroscopy and then addresses the main areas of current molecular astrophysics, including galaxy formation, star forming regions, mass loss from young as well as highly evolved stars and supernovae, starburst galaxies plus the tori and discs near the central engines of active galactic nuclei. All chapters have been written by invited authors who are acknowledged experts in their fields. The thorough editorial process has ensured a uniformly high standard of exposition and a coherent style. The book is unique in giving a detailed view of its wide-ranging subject. It will provide the standard introduction for research students in molecular astrophysics. The book will be read by research astronomers and astrophysicists who wish to broaden the basis of their knowledge or are moving their activities into this burgeoning field. It will enable chemists to learn the astrophysics most related to chemistry as well as instruct physicists about the molecular processes most important in astronomy.

This comprehensive and systematic text provides the polymer scientist and technologist with a firm grounding in the principles underlying the wide applications of block copolymers. The first text of its kind for over ten years, this informative book is essential to the polymer chemistry, physics and materials science researcher in industry and academia, and postgraduates in related fields.

The primer is intended to provide a good introduction for chemistry, physics and material science undergraduates to the science of surfaces. It incorporates both chemical thermodynamics and modern spectroscopic methods of analysing surfaces, and shows via worked examples and problems in the final chapter, how the physico-chemical concepts developed in earlier chapters may be applied in elucidating surface structure, reactivity and composition.

Winner of a 2005 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book Award Molecular symmetry is an easily applied tool for understanding and predicting many of the properties of molecules. Traditionally, students are taught this subject using point groups derived from the equilibrium geometry of the molecule. Fundamentals of Molecular Symmetry shows how to set up symmetry groups for molecules using the more general idea of energy invariance. It is no more difficult than using molecular geometry and one obtains molecular symmetry groups. The book provides an introductory description of molecular spectroscopy and quantum mechanics as the foundation for understanding how molecular symmetry is defined and used. The approach taken gives a balanced account of using both point groups and molecular symmetry groups. Usually the point group is only useful for isolated, nonrotating molecules, executing small amplitude vibrations, with no tunneling, in isolated electronic states. However, for the chemical physicist or physical chemist who wishes to go beyond these limitations, the molecular symmetry group is almost always required.

This book deals with a central topic at the interface of chemistry and physics-the understanding of how the transformation of matter takes place at the atomic level. Building on the laws of physics, the book focuses on the theoretical framework for predicting the outcome of chemical reactions. The style is highly systematic with attention to basic concepts and clarity of presentation. The emphasis is on concepts and insights obtained via analytical theories rather than computational and numerical aspects. Molecular reaction dynamics is about the detailed atomic-level description of chemical reactions. Based on quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics, the dynamics of uni- and bi-molecular elementary reactions are described. The book features a comprehensive presentation of transition-state theory which plays an important role in practice, and a detailed discussion of basic theories of reaction dynamics in condensed phases. Examples and end-of-chapter problems are included in order to illustrate the theory and its connection to chemical problems. The second edition includes updated descriptions of adiabatic and non-adiabatic electron-nuclear dynamics, an expanded discussion of classical two-body models of chemical reactions, including the Langevin model, additional material on quantum tunnelling and its implementation in Transition-State Theory, and a more thorough description of the Born and Onsager models for solvation.

This book consists of over 422 problems and their acceptable answers on structural inorganic chemistry at the senior undergraduate and beginning graduate level. The central theme running through these questions is symmetry, bonding and structure: molecular or crystalline. A wide variety of topics are covered, including Electronic States and Configurations of Atoms and Molecules, Introductory Quantum Chemistry, Atomic Orbitals, Hybrid Orbitals, Molecular Symmetry, Molecular Geometry and Bonding, Crystal Field Theory, Molecular Orbital Theory, Vibrational Spectroscopy, Crystal Structure, Transition Metal Chemistry, Metal Clusters: Bonding and Reactivity, and Bioinorganic Chemistry. The questions collected here originate from the examination papers and take-home assignments arising from the teaching of courses in Chemical Bonding, Elementary Quantum Chemistry, Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, and X-Ray Crystallography by the book's two senior authors over the past five decades. The questions have been tested by generations of students taking these courses. The questions in this volume cover essentially all the topics in a typical course in structural inorganic chemistry. The text may be used as a supplement for a variety of inorganic chemistry courses at the senior undergraduate level. It also serves as a problem text to accompany the book Advanced Structural Inorganic Chemistry, co-authored by W.-K. Li, G.-D. Zhou, and T. C. W. Mak (Oxford University Press, 2008).

This book presents the main principles and methods of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, a topic studied by both chemists and physicists. It is written for graduate students and scientists who already have knowledge of basic equilibrium statistical mechanics and who are interested in the more complex field of time-dependent nonequilibrium statistical mechanics.

The crystallization of proteins and nucleic acids and/or their complexes has become more highly automated but is still often a trial and error based approach. In parallel, a number of X-ray diffraction based techniques have been developed which explain the physical reasons limiting the resulting crystallographic data and thus show how that data may be improved. Crystal growth is also pivotal in neutron crystallography, which establishes the hydrogen and hydration aspects. Thus this book is aimed at addressing the science behind obtaining the best and most complete structural data possible for biological macromolecules, so that the detailed structural biology and chemistry of these important molecules emerge. Crystal imperfections such as twinning and lattice disorders, as well as multiple crystal situations, and their possible remedies, are also described. The small crystal frontier in micro-crystal crystallography, crystallites in powders and finally down to the proposed single molecule structure determination of X-ray lasers are covered. Overall this interdisciplinary book will interest crystal growers, X-ray and neutron physicists and the biological crystallographers, including graduate students.