Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Now updated to incorporate recent developments in the field, the third edition of this successful text offers an excellent introduction to polymer chemistry. Ideal for graduate students, advanced undergraduates, and industrial chemists who work with polymers, it is the only current polymer textbook that discusses polymer types according to functional groups. It provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the chemistry of macromolecular substances, with particular emphasis on polymers that are important commercially and the properties that make them important. Major topics include polymer synthesis and nomenclature; molecular weight and molecular weight distribution; reactions of polymers; recycling of polymers; methods used for characterizing and testing polymers; morphology; stereoregular polymers; polymer blends; step-growth, chain-growth, and ring-opening polymerization; commercially important addition and condensation polymers; and heterocyclic, inorganic, and natural polymers. Review exercises, many including journal references, are provided to help lead students into the polymer literature. Polymer Chemistry, 3/e, offers the most up-to-date treatment available of new developments in this rapidly changing field. It covers dendritic and hyperbranched polymers, olefin polymerization using metallocene catalysts, living free radical polymerization, biodegradable bacterial polyesters, mass spectrometric methods for determining molecular weights of polymers, atomic force microscopy for characterizing polymer surfaces, and polymers exhibiting nonlinear optical properties.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Part I Polymer Structure and Properties
• 1 Basic Principles
• 2 Molecular Weight and Polymer Solutions
• 3 Chemical Structure and Polymer Morphology
• 4 Chemical Structure and Polymer Properties
• 5 Evaluation, Characterization, and Analysis of Polymers
• Part II Vinyl Polymers
• 6 Free Radical Vinyl Polymerization
• 7 Ionic and Group Transfer Polymerization
• 8 Vinyl Polymerization with Complex Coordination Catalysts
• 9 Reactions of Vinyl Polymers
• Part III Nonvinyl Polymers
• 10 Step-reaction and Ring-Opening Polymerization
• 11 Polyethers, Polysulfides, and Related Polymers
• 12 Polyesters
• 13 Polyamides and Related Polymers
• 14 Phenol-, Urea-, and Melamine-Formaldehyde Polymers
• 15 Inorganic-Organic Polymers
• 16 Miscellaneous Organic Polymers
• 17 Natural Polymers

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Stevens (Univ. of Hartford, Connecticut) offers five chapters introducing the principles of polymerization, polymer properties, and polymer characterization. Further chapters treat polymerization methods for vinyl polymers (free radical, ionic, Ziegler-Natta) and reactions on polymers, and then move to step-growth and ring-opening polymerizations. Other chapters include high performance thermoplastics, heterocyclics, and thermoset polymers. The book concludes with material on inorganic polymers and natural polymers. Chapters are very readable and well referenced, and each contains a question set. Appendixes list polymer abbreviations, polymer reference books and journals, and resources for experiments for affiliated polymer laboratory classes. The book is well organized so it can be used in part or in toto for a year-long polymer sequence on properties and chemistry. The first part can be employed in classes for students who are not proficient with chemistry, but the later sections are best applied to students who have completed organic chemistry. Stevens's book occupies a valuable niche between Fred W. Billmeyer's Textbook of Polymer Science (3rd ed., 1984), which focuses primarily on the mechanical and physical properties of polymers, and George G. Odian's Principles of Polymerization (3rd ed., 1991), which emphasizes polymer chemistry. Upper-division undergraduates; graduates; two-year technical program students. P. G. Heiden Michigan Technological University

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Malcolm P. Stevens is at University of Hartford.