Book excerpt: Physical Methods in Modern Chemical Analysis, Volume 2 covers the fundamental principles, the instrumentation or necessary equipment, and applications of selected physical methods. This volume contains five chapters, and deals first with the theory, instrumentation, column features, and applications of high-performance liquid chromatography. The next two chapters survey the principles, experimental aspects, procedures, and specific applications of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction methods. A chapter discusses the technical and theoretical aspects of ion cyclotron resonance, with a special emphasis on its application in gas phase ion and neutral compounds analysis. The last chapter explores the apparatus and experimental procedures in refractive index measurements. This book will be of value to analytical chemists and analytical chemistry researchers.