ADVANCED MATERIALS

correlate the functional aspects of biomaterials to their ac- ceptance by the host tissue, and the other twelve devoted to the application of materials within the different fields of medicine. The main intention is to help scientists and engi- neers to learn where and how a particular material performs in biological environments and to allow them to gain a gen- eral survey of this field.

This subdivision of the coverage according to medical spe- cialties forces readers interested in particular materials to either read all the chapters or to make use of the detailed index in order to find the spots at which the material of interest is dealt with. For readers interested in a general survey another problem exists: There have already been several attempts to provide an overview of this highly diver- sified field, e.g. by categorizing implant materials according to their degree of biochemical influence on adjacent tissues, or by the degree an implant influences the processes of wound healing. This is infact attempted in the introductory chapter but not continued through subsequent chapter, al- though this would have been a useful guide to newcomers to the field.

One more general comment which refers to the chapters dealing with topics of the reviewer’s own fields of interest: Every author of a review paper faces the problem of which literature to refer the readers to. The author of the introduc- tory chapter, obviously, decided to cite good, recent review papers. A completelyjustified choice, but it should have been mentioned that this was the intention as, otherwise, a new- comer to the field might wonder how recently the work had been done. Furthermore, most of the essential statements are well supported by literature citations. However, some are missing. For example, it would be helpful to the reader wish- ing to carry his study beyond the information presented by the author if references had been included for the vanadium- free titanium alloys and of niobium, tantalum and zirconium (in the chapter on Materials in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery).

One more critical comment before turning to the over- welmingly positive aspects : Any author presenting parts of his expertise to non-experts should be aware of the danger of misunderstandings resulting from the simple fact that a statement passed on to a non-expert will not automatically be placed into the same knowledge environment as that of the author. An example of such a potential misunderstand- ing is the statement in the first chapter of the tendency of the epithelium to surround implants and thereby seriously im- pede the implant’s interaction with bone. Of course, the au- thor does know that many percutaneous and permucosal implants have survival rates of the order of up to 90% after IOyears, but not all readers may share that background knowledge.

My critical comments apply to single isolated aspects only. All contributions do provide a good picture of the fields concerned. The selection of topics not only completely cov- ers the range of biomaterials but also provides an excellent presentation of the correlation between materials science

and the biological aspects. Some essentially editorial features are noteworthy: The inclusion of a Glossary of Biological and Medical Terms, additional Tables of Contents at the start of each contribution, extended lists of references, and, as a surprising peculiarity, chapter and section headings on the top of each left and right page, respectively.

Giinther Heirnke Clemson University

Clemson, SC 29634-0905 (USA)

Materials for Nonlinear Optics, Chemical Perspectives, Seth R. Marder, John E. Sohn, and Galen D. Stucky (Eds.), American Chemical Society, Washington 1991, XVI, 750 pp., hardcover, $129.95; ISBN 0-8412-1939-7. Since the discovery of all-optical nonlinear effects in the

early 1960s and until the beginning of the 1980s the field of nonlinear optics (NLO) was mainly the domain of physicists. During the last decade, however, chemists have become ac- tively involved in this area. Chemists, in particular synthetic chemists, wishing to become better acquainted with the fun- damentals of NLO have had a hard time because the avail- able literature in the field has been mainly written and ad- dressed to scientists with a more physical background. Thus, there is a great need for a book which presents the material from the view of the chemist. This is what the editors of the present book have attempted, at least in its first section. The book is, however, a collection of papers presented at a sym- posium sponsored by the American Chemical Society, which was held in Boston, Massachusetts in April 1990.

A major issue with this and every other book resulting from a conference is the matter of organization. Clearly, how to deal successfully with such a variety of papers is not triv- ial. In this book the material is organized loosely in eight sections.

The first section comprises the tutorial papers in which the basic concepts of linear and nonlinear polarization are dis- cussed. It is didactically shown how NLO polarization of electrons gives rise to a variety of NLO effects. The relation- ships between microscopic and macroscopic nonlinearity in crystals, polymers and molecular assemblies are also intro- duced. In addition, the methods commonly used for charac- terization of second- and third-order nonlinear optical prop- erties are discussed. This introductory section is then concluded with papers on the waveguide applications of NLO materials.

Section I1 deals with studies aiming at the understanding of structureproperty relationships. These include investiga- tions on the relationship between chemical structure and molecular hyperpolarizability. For this purpose, systematic variations of donor and acceptor groups in substituted ben- zenes, stilbenes and biphenyls are reported. The use of the sulfonyl group as an acceptor group in materials for NLO is widely discussed. A study on anomalous dispersion phase matched second harmonic generation is also presented.

310 (, VCH ~ ~ i . , . l ( r j i , s j i c . s c l ~ s ~ h ( i ~ ~ nihli, W-6940 Wcitiheim, i Y Y 2 0935-9648/92j0404-0310 8 3.50 f .25/0 Adv. Muter. 4 (1992) No . 4

Section 111 contains eight papers on the preparation and characterization of poled polymers. Polar macromolecular systems based on derivatives of polyacrylates, polymethacry- lates, polyethers, polyhydroxystyrenes, and polyphos- phazenes are described. Different approaches taken to avoid or significantly decrease the chromophore disorientation fol- lowing electric field poling are also presented.

n

Section IV deals with organic and inorganic crystals. The topics included in this section are very varied ranging from general papers on materials chemistry, strategies in the search for new NLO crystals, and defect chemistry of NLO crystals to cyclobutenediones as a new acceptor in NLO crystals. Borate crystals for NLO applications and photore- fractive effects in barium titanate are also reported.

Section V is devoted to novel approaches to orientation of molecular units. These new principles include: a) the self assembly of molecules into polar structures due to the inter- action of complementary molecular subunits. b) The use of intermolecular hydrogen bonds to obtain acentric crystal structures and c) the design of solid materials with polar structures by controlling crystal polymorphism with the as- sistance of auxiliary molecules.

Investigations being conducted in many laboratories on composites and metal-based systems are presented in sec- tionsVI and VII, respectively. The examples on composite materials include salts, clathrasils and inorganic sol-gel glasses. Small semiconductor particles, ferrocene systems and substituted phthalocyanines are examples of the classes of materials discussed in section VII.

The final section deals with sigma and pi delocalized third order nonlinear optical materials.

If I do have a general criticism, it is one I would also like to ascribe to the other available books on materials for non- linear optics. What is missing, especially for the chemist, is a standard and reliable presentation of the NLO measure- ments. A large quantity of data on many different classes of

ADVANCED MATERIALS

chemical compounds have already been obtained. Compari- sons, however, are usually difficult not only due to the often different assumptions made to interpret the measurements, but also to the different experimental conditions.

In summary, the nature of this type of book results in an enormous amount of information being presented without being worked into a unit. The strength of the book as such, lies, however, in the tutorials comprising the first section. This part of the book contains several admirable, concise and still very didactic presentations of the basic concepts. This, together with the many exciting results on the different classes of materials, would certainly help to motivate a more active participation of the chemical community in the excit- ing field of nonlinear optics.

Ivan CuArcru [AMBR 2041 Central Research, Hoechst AG

6230 Frankfurt am Main 80 (FRG)

-

Ad)’ . Muter. 4 (1992) N o . 4 (:) VCH ~~rlu~.rgc.sell .schu~~ mhH, W-6940 Wrinheini, 1992 0935-9648/92/0404-0311 R 3.50+ .25/0 31 1

Ceramic Materials for Electronics; Processing, Properties, and Applications, 2. ed. R. C. Buchanan (Ed.), Marcel Dekker Inc., New York 1991 ; XII, 532 pp., hardcover,

After five years, the second edition of a book is issued which at the publication date of its first edition was the only general textbook on modern electronic ceramics. Conse- quently, it received remarkable acceptance and widespread use in the passive electronic components industry, in materi- als research centers, and in materials science departments at universities throughout the world. With individual authors being specialists for their topics, it covers the whole field of electronic ceramics.

The structure and content of the book are much the same as the first edition except that the revision and expansion (of approx. 50pages) has further increased the value of the book. The appearance of the text has improved due to more professional typesetting, although the photographs have de- creased in quality-almost as if they were reproduced from a printed copy of the first edition. Despite a few slight drawbacks, the book can be regarded as a valuable introduc- tion to the field of electronic ceramics and the very large number of references support the reader in specializing where necessary. The high price of the book, however, will limit the number of private buyers.

Raker Waser [AMBR 2081 Philips Research Laboratories

P.O. Box 1980, W-5100 Aachen (FRG)

$ 166.75, ISBN 0-8247-8194-5.

Chemical Synthesis of Advanced Ceramic Materials, by David Segal, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1991, 182 pp, L 15.00, paperback, ISBN 0-521-42418-6. Ceramics are the oldest synthetic materials used by man

and for centuries their manufacture remained more of an art