Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #165892 in Books
• Published on: 1998-11-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 576 pages

Review
"The best polymer textbook I've seen yet!"--Stuart R. Taylor, Tarleton State University

"Organized in a useful fashion, proceeding from fundamental principles to more advanced concepts. This allows an instructor to structure a course following the text, picking some subjects for emphasis and touching others lightly. The end-of-chapter exercises are excellent."--Gary Wentworth, Roosevelt University

"Provides a useful and comprehensive survey of the chemical and physical principles that underlie the practice of polymer and composite materials. Easily accessible to the advanced undergraduate chemist and well within the grasp of graduate students trained in allied areas."--Dennis M. Manos, College of William and Mary

Book Info
Provides a comprehensive & up to date overview of the chemistry of macromolecular substances, with particular emphasis on polymers that are important commercially & the properties that make them important. DLC: Polymers.

About the Author
Malcolm P. Stevens is at University of Hartford.

Customer Reviews

Good Textbook
This is a good Polymer Chemistry Textbook. It is very informative. However, it isn't the most exciting read. The book is completely black and white, making it hard to read for extended periods of time. I would recommend this textbook for the quality of it's information.

some other introductory books
Just wanted to mention two other introductory polymer books:

Polymers (Oxford Chemistry Primers) by David J. Walton & J. Phillip Lorimer. This book is just a brief intro to the field. Wouldn't use it for a full semester course.

The Chemistry of Polymers by J.W. Nicholson, 2nd edition, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, ISBN 0854045589. This one IS suitable for a 1 semester course.

Both are very good.


Check out my other reviews for other chemistry books.

Great introduction to polymer chem...
I was not able to fit polymer chem into my schedule at University, so I bought this book after graduating. This book is extremely organized and provides a lot of examples. The first of three sections provides a great introduction with the focus on definitions and structure. This is accomplished with very little reference to reactions.
The next two sections, which are titled vinyl and nonvinyl polymers respectively, address reaction mechanisms and kinetics. This layout allowed for smooth transitions between sections and concepts were introduced and reinforced smoothly.
The other thing I liked about it, is the continuous reinforcement of nomenclature...every time a name was used a corresponding structure was on that same page.