Introduction to Physical Polymer Science

by L. H. Sperling

Publisher: Wiley-Interscience
ISBN: 047170606X

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Book Description

An Updated Edition of the Classic Text

Polymers constitute the basis for the plastics, rubber, adhesives, fiber, and coating industries. The Fourth Edition of Introduction to Physical Polymer Science acknowledges the industrial success of polymers and the advancements made in the field while continuing to deliver the comprehensive introduction to polymer science that made its predecessors classic texts.

The Fourth Edition continues its coverage of amorphous and crystalline materials, glass transitions, rubber elasticity, and mechanical behavior, and offers updated discussions of polymer blends, composites, and interfaces, as well as such basics as molecular weight determination. Thus, interrelationships among molecular structure, morphology, and mechanical behavior of polymers continue to provide much of the value of the book.

Newly introduced topics include:

• Nanocomposites, including carbon nanotubes and exfoliated montmorillonite clays
• The structure, motions, and functions of DNA and proteins, as well as the interfaces of polymeric biomaterials with living organisms
• The glass transition behavior of nano-thin plastic films

In addition, new sections have been included on fire retardancy, friction and wear, optical tweezers, and more.

Introduction to Physical Polymer Science, Fourth Edition provides both an essential introduction to the field as well as an entry point to the latest research and developments in polymer science and engineering, making it an indispensable text for chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science and engineering, and polymer science and engineering students and professionals.

The publisher, John Wiley & Sons

Updated and revised, it focuses on the role of molecular conformation and configuration in determining the physical behavior of polymers. New features include the amorphous and crystalline states of polymers; macromolecular hypothesis and historical development of photophysics and fluorescence; thermodynamics of blending polymers and polymer/polymer phase diagrams; a discussion of rheology plus gelatinous materials; and a variety of contemporary topics emphasizing surface, interfacial and electrical behavior of polymers, nonlinear optics and high temperature substances. Each chapter includes several classroom demonstrations and problem sets.

About the Author

Trained as a chemist, L. H. SPERLING is Professor Emeritus of both Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He remains active in consulting, speaking, and writing.

Customer Reviews

I read about 90% of this book for my course in physical polymer science. I didn't read the last couple of chapters. This book was a good introduction to the subject. I learned alot about physical polymer science simply from reading this text.

Sperling's book stands out as the most useful polymer science text, compiling essential elements of varied physical properties and behaviour. The third edition has up to date material on all aspects of polymer physics including chapters on polymer surfaces and interfaces as well as on multicomponent polymer systems and liquid crystalline polymers. In my opinion, as a beginners guide, the book is definitely outscores over all other texts in market including Billmeyer, Painter Coleman, Rodriquez, etc. The book also contains a good description of various polymer characterization techniques.

The material covered is adequate to provide basic information about each field in polymer physics, and the textbook has enough material to be useful for two or three courses. The author presents a lot of tables in the book, that succintly summarize important points related to that topic. Coupled with Strobl's book, which has slightly advanced description of polymer physics, and Doi's Introduction to polymer physics, which has mathematically intensive description of statistical mechanics of polymers, you have three texts to teach you essentially everything there is to know in Polymer Physics!! (Perhaps you can add a text for Polymer Rheology, say by Larson!)