Polymer science interdisciplinary approach

Richard A. Register and Stuart L. Cooper, Chemical Engineers in Polymer Science The Need for an Interdisciplinary Approach... 

During this time the first ACS Interaction Series - "Polymer Science and Technology - An Interdisciplinary Approach" - under the direction of Eli Pearce, Shalaby Shalaby and Garth Wilkes was under preparation. 

To understand this new class of materials requires an interdisciplinary approach free-radical photopolymerization chemistry, low-molar-mass liquid crystals physics, materials science of thermosets and display technology. This short review will touch on aspects of understanding of the morphology of these polymer networks formed in liquid crystal media. 

We feel that the speakers have been able to transfer a feeling for this spectrum, and their place in it, to the printed page in this book. Hence it may not be too optimistic on our paxt to expect that the book will provide the reader, as the Institute did the participants, with the basic knowledge and the inspiration necessary for the continuing development of the science of stereoregular and structurally-ordered polymers, and we hope it will continue to promote cooperative research programs and interdisciplinary approaches to defined problems. 

The new material science opened by the discovery of the electrical conductivity [1/2] and optical non linearities of polyconjugated organic polymers is a classical example of the need of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of their physical properties and shows the importance played by the experimental physical sciences in the characterisation of the materials and in the understanding of the phenomena. 

In the future it will be necessary for further interdisciplinary work combining the approaches of chemical engineering, biology and material science to develop stimuli-responsive materials and their range of applications, particularly in terms of cellular therapies and regenerative medicine. pH-respon-sive polymers may well be suited to applications in drug delivery for clinical therapies and the manipulation of cells including neuronal and stem cells. 

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