This new edition includes better values of properties already reported, properties not reported in time for the earlier edition, and entirely new properties becoming important for modern polymer applications. It also contains 217 total polymers, 15 of which are all-new, particularly in high-technology areas such as eletrical conductivity, non-linear optical properties, microlithography, nanophotonics, and electroluminescences. Examples of specific polymers include silsesquoxane ladder polymers, 'foldamer' self-assembling polymers, and block copolymers that phase separate into 'mushrooms', ellipsoids, and sheets with on surface radically different in properties from the other.
Polymer chemistry and technology form one of the major areas of molecular and materials science. This field impinges on nearly every aspect of modern life, from electronics technology, to medicine, to the wide range of fibers, films, elastomers, and structural materials on which everyone depends. Although most of these polymers are organic materials, attention is being focused increasingly toward polymers that contain inorganic elements as well as organic components. The goal of Inorganic Polymers is to provide a broad overview of inorganic polymers in a way that will be useful to both the uninitiated and those already working in this field. There are numerous reasons for being interested in inorganic polymers. One is the simple need to know how structure affects the properties of a polymer, particularly outside the well-plowed area of organic materials. Another is the bridge that inorganic polymers provide between polymer science and ceramics. More and more chemistry is being used in the preparation of ceramics of carefully controlled structure, and inorganic polymers are increasingly important precursor materials in such approaches. This new edition begins with a brief introductory chapter. That is followed with a discussion of the characteristics and characterization of polymers, with examples taken from the field. Other chapters in the book detail the synthesis, reaction chemistry, molecular structure, and uses of polyphosphazenes, polysiloxanes, and polysilanes. The coverage in the second edition has been updated and expanded significantly to cover advances and interesting trends since the first edition appeared. Three new chapters have been added, focusing on ferrocene-based polymers, other phosphorous-containing polymers, and boron-containing polymers; inorganic-organic hybrid composites; and preceramic inorganic polymers.
Polysiloxanes are the most studied inorganic and semi-inorganic polymers because of their many medical and commercial uses. The Si-O backbone endows polysiloxanes with intriguing properties: the strength of the Si-O bond imparts considerable thermal stability, and the nature of the bonding imparts low surface free energy. Prostheses, artificial organs, objects for facial reconstruction, vitreous substitutes in the eyes, and tubing take advantage of the stability and pliability of polysiloxanes. Artificial skin, contact lenses, and drug delivery systems utilize their high permeability. Such biomedical applications have led to biocompatability studies on the interactions of polysiloxanes with proteins, and there has been interest in modifying these materials to improve their suitability for general biomedical application. Polysiloxanes examines novel aspects of polysiloxane science and engineering, including properties, work in progress, and important unsolved problems. The volume, with ten comprehensive chapters, examines the history, preparatin and analysis, synthesis, characterization, and applications of these polymeric materials.
Elastomers and rubberlike materials form a critical component in diverse applications that range from tyres to biomimetics and are used in chemical, biomedical, mechanical and electrical engineering. This updated and expanded edition provides an elementary introduction to the physical and molecular concepts governing elastic behaviour, with a particular focus on elastomers. The coverage of fundamental principles has been greatly extended and fully revised, with analogies to more familiar systems such as gases, producing an engaging approach to these phenomena. Dedicated chapters on novel uses of elastomers, covering bioelastomers, filled elastomers and liquid crystalline elastomers, illustrate the established and emerging applications at the forefront of physical science. With a list of experiments and demonstrations, problem sets and solutions, this is a self-contained introduction to the topic for graduate students, researchers and industrialists working in the applied fields of physics and chemistry, polymer science and engineering.
Rubber elasticity is an important sub-field of polymer science. This book is a sequel to the author's previous, more introductory book, Rubberlike Elasticity: A Molecular Primer (Wiley-Interscience, 1988). A more advanced text than its predecessor, subject areas are covered in greater depth and in a more sophisticated style, with an emphasis on molecular concepts and theories. It is expected that this comprehensive up-to-date text will replace the now classic book by L.R.G. Reloar, The Physics of Rubber Elasticity (Oxford, 1975) as a benchmark in the discipline.
The present book is a sequel to "Elastomers and Rubber Elasticity," edited by J.E. Mark and J. Lal and published by the American Chemical Society in 1982. It is also based on papers presented at an ACS Symposium, sponsored by the Division of Polymer Chemistry, Inc., in this case one held in Chicago in September of 1985. The keynote speaker was to have been Pro fessor Paul J. Flory, and his untimely death just prior to the symposium was a tremendous loss to all of polymer science, in particular to those in terested in elastomeric materials. It is to his memory that this book is dedicated. There has been a great deal of progress in preparing and studying elas tomers since the preceding symposium, which was in 1981. In the case of the synthesis and curing of elastomers, much of the background necessary to an appreciation of these advances is given in the first, introductory chapter.
