Some general polymer texts

The list below gives a selection of the many polymer textbooks available. Some of these contain more about polymerisation processes and about polymers in solution and the melt than the present book, but their coverage of polymers in the solid state is often rather narrower. All are at a similar or slightly more advanced level than the present book, with the exception of (1). Although it is now quite old, this elementary book can profitably be read cover to cover by the complete beginner. 

---

In this chapter the new methods that are being applied to polymer systems are described in more detail, with particular attention paid to traps for the unwary user. Some techniques are stiU in the process of development, but clearly hold out promise of application to polymer science and engineering. Each section begins with some general references to texts and reviews on the technique being described. The reader who becomes anything more than a casual user of the new techniques will need more information than can be provided here. 

The molecular chain architecture of a polymer also imparts many unique attributes, including temperature and rate dependence. Some of these unique properties are further illustrated in the specific case of UHMWPE in subsequent sections of this chapter. For further background on general polymer concepts, the reader is referred to texts by Rodriguez [1] and Young [2]. 

The refractive indices of polymers provide fundamental physical property information that can be used in characterization, processing, and usage analyses. In-depth description of refractive indices based on classic electromagnetic theory can be found in basic texts (1,2). The purpose of this monograph is to provide a convenient reference of values and some general remarks in approximating and utilizing refractive indices of polymers. 

The first edition of the book was drafted with respect to the limited extent required by the publishers. This requirement is also the case for the second edition. Therefore the insertion of new results dictated the omission of some sections, e. g. of a part of the text specific for CSFR, of the chapter on the sources and toxicity of monomers, and of whole part 9 on the methods of polymer investigation. The general concept of the book has not changed its aim is to inform on all important findings, to facilitate the search for the common features of any of the various basic polymerization processes, without distracting the reader s attention by a too detailed description of some special cases isolated in the context. 

The concept of an identifiable simple repeating unit loses some of its utility with polymers that are highly branched, with speeies that eonsist of intereonnected branches, or with those niacromoiccules that are synthesized from more than a few different smaller precursor monomers. Similar difficulties arise when the final poly meric structure is built up by linking different smaller polymers. This limitation to the definition will become clearer in context when some of these polymer types, like alkyds (Section 1.6), are discussed later in the text. Any deficiency in the general application of the term is not serious, since ihe concept ofa repeating unit is in fact only employed where such groupings of atoms are readily apparent. 

These materials, the polymeric sulphones, also come into the category of hexavalent sulphur compounds and are derivatives of sulphonic acids. The photochemistry and the radiation chemistry of these substances have been reviewed in a variety of texts. Thus the radiation chemistry was reviewed in considerable detail in 1988147. Other texts have reviewed photodegradation and photooxidation of polymers in general with some reference to the polysulphones149. It appears that polysulphones have low thermal stability and as a result have failed to undergo commercial utilization149. 

The use of MS to analyze polymeric materials requires therefore some knowledge of basic polymer science, and acquaintance with the conventional methods used in the characterization of polymeric materials is desirable. The field of polymer characterization is vast nevertheless comprehensive books are available which cover the entire subject.Other texts are slightly less general and deal with groups of methodologies for polymer analysis, such as the spectroscopic methods (IR, NMR), or the group of chromatographic methods. Textbooks in polymer science provide the reader with an account of the most popular methods used in polymer analysis. 

In this paper I will focus on how these similarities (and differences) between ordinary liquids and polymeric fluids may be transposed to liquid crystalline phases of low molar mass mesogens and their polymeric analogues. This general theme is prefaced by a brief review of the two general classes of polymeric liquid crystals that is intended for researchers unfamiliar with the development of the field. The literature citations are not comprehensive but rather are designed to enable one to assess current references to the topics considered here. The elementary physico-chemical aspects of liquid crystals — applicable to polymeric liquid crystals as well are exhaustively summarized in Kelker and Hatz s Handbook of Liquid Crystals. Blumstein has edited a text. Liquid Crystalline Order in Polymers, that reviews some of the earlier work on PLCs.(5) More recent work is summarized in Polymer Liquid Crystals edited by Cif-feri, Krigbaum and Meyer.(6)... 

Throughout the book numerous references are made to the available range of general purpose NMR spectroscopy texts. The reader should turn to these for a full introduction to solution and solid-state techniques and their application to chemical science. Alternatively, texts are available which treat NMR as one of the range of spectroscopies of relevance to polymer characterisation. The reader will also be made aware of some excellent works on specific aspects of polymer NMR, including microstructural determination and high-resolution solid-state methods. In a number of cases these would form a... 

This quick overview provides an idea of how an idealized polymer responds. Now a more detailed description of these transitions can be provided, with some examples of their applications. The best general collection of this information is still McCrum s 1967 text [27]. 

A large and perfect crystal scatters electrons into a diffraction pattern of sharp spots. General interpretation of this pattern requires a knowledge of crystallography. There are many texts in this field [18-20], with some specifically aimed at microscopists [21, 22]. Books on crystal optics (Section 2.3) contain basic summaries [23, 24]. There are also many texts on diffraction from materials 125-27], some concentrating on electron diffraction [28, 29]. The most common use of a crystal diffraction pattern is to find the orientation of a crystal of known structure. Wunderhch [30] contains a listing of many polymer crystal structures. 

Various introductory texts in this field have been prepared for conservators in the past decades (Torraca, 1968 Feller etal., 1971 Conservation Unit, 1992). Many more books are now available for schools and the general public that outline the concepts and properties of polymers. More detailed reference books that assume some knowledge of chemistry include Painter and Coleman (1997), Brydson (1999), and Cowie and Arrighi (2008). The reader is assumed to have access to publications of the International Institute for Conservation. Polymers that have been adequately described in those publications have been given a slighter treatment here to avoid duplication. 

The preponderance of literature in the field has been considered, with no attempt to be completely exhaustive. Perhaps unavoidably, the text, in some portions, consists of an anthology of separate but related studies in subfields of mechanochemistry. This is, in part, the inevitable result of the extreme diversity of the methods and polymer systems which have been utilized. We have attempted to provide an overview of the general features of mechanochemistry. We have also taken the liberty of exercising judgments concerning the relative merits and relevance of published data, conclusions, and theories. Where possible, we have also provided new summaries and tables showing the principal variables in mechanochemistry. 

The creep and creep recovery behavior of a four-parameter fluid is shown in Fig. 5.4 and is recognized as the response of a thermoplastic type polymer as given earlier in Fig. 3.13. The three stages of instantaneous elasticity, delayed elasticity and flow represents the most general type behavior possible for a linear viscoelastic material. Note Some texts do not include the flow term as a viscoelastic component, preferring instead... 

---