Polymer Chemistry: An Introduction (Hardcover)

by Malcolm P. Stevens (Author) "We live in a polymer age..." (more)
Key Phrases: close chain packing, exact stoichiometric balance, alkylene polysulfide, New York, Marcel Dekker, Academic Press (more...)

Editorial Reviews

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 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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, heterocyclic polymers, inorganic polymers, 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 or polymers, atomic force microscopy for characterizing polymer surfaces, and polymers exhibiting nonlinear optical properties.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 656 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 2 edition (April 26, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195057597
• ISBN-13: 978-0195057591
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,622,235 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Polymer Chemistry-An Excellent Introduction, April 21, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Polymer Chemistry: An Introduction (Hardcover)

"Polymer Chemistry: An Introduction" is an excellent text for an upper division undergraduate or graduate level course in polymer chemistry. The book is also enjoyable to read for scientists and engineers in the polymer and materials fields. The content is logically organized, there is fairly in-depth discussion of mechanisms of polymerization reactions and of the origins of stereoregularity in polymers, and the problems at the end of each chapter are more than adequate for reviewing the subject matter. Professor Stevens clearly introduces the reader to the subject of polymer chemistry, relating the physical properties of macromolecular materials to polymer orientation, microstructure, stereochemistry and chemical composition. He also provides an enormous amount of information on the history of polymers in a fashion that effectively reinforces the important concepts being described. I find myself referring to this text far more frequently than the other polymer texts on my bookshelves.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great introduction to polymer chem..., October 27, 2002

By	GHarder (Vancouver, BC Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Polymer Chemistry: An Introduction (Hardcover)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Premier Polymer Chemistry Text, July 11, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Polymer Chemistry: An Introduction (Hardcover)

This textbook does an excellent job of going over the basics of polmer chemistry. There are insightful questions at the end of chapters that make students think and the book goes over the material in such a way that a background in organic chemistry is not necessary. If you need to learn about polymer chemistry on your own, this book is an excellent purchase.