Introduction To Polymer Physics

This book is a concise and clearly written introduction to the modern theory of polymer physics. The book describes basic concepts and methods of investigating the statistical properties of the assembly of chain-like molecules. The topics discussed include scaling theory, concentration fluctuation, gels, and reptation. Both graduate students and researchers in physics, physical chemistry, chemical engineering, and materials science will find this an extremely useful textbook and reference work.

Publisher Description

Modern polymer materials are designed by applying principles of correlation between chemical structure, physical macrostructure and technological properties. Fundamentals of polymer physics are explained in this book without excessive use of calculations. Four main sections treat relaxation of polymers, melting and crystallization, the mechanism of deformation in thermoplastics, elastomers and multiphase systems, and thermodynamics of mixing and swelling of polymers and polymer networks. The book presents the theoretical models of polymer physics in a comprehensive style and relates their applicability to real polymer systems in terms of the available experimental observations.

This book is the result of my teaching efforts during the last ten years at the Royal Institute of Technology. The purpose is to present the subject of polymer physics for undergraduate and graduate students, to focus the fundamental aspects of the subject and to show the link between experiments and theory. The intention is not to present a compilation of the currently available literature on the subject. Very few reference citations have thus been made. Each chapter has essentially the same structure: starling with an introduction, continuing with the actual subject, summarizing the chapter in 30D-500 words, and finally presenting problems and a list of relevant references for the reader. The solutions to the problems presented in Chapters 1-12 are given in Chapter 13. The theme of the book is essentially polymer science, with the exclusion of that part dealing directly with chemical reactions. The fundamentals in polymer science, including some basic polymer chemistry, are presented as an introduction in the first chapter. The next eight chapters deal with different phenomena (processes) and states of polymers. The last three chapters were written with the intention of making the reader think practically about polymer physics. How can a certain type of problem be solved? What kinds of experiment should be conducted? This book would never have been written without the help of my friend and adviser, Dr Anthony Bristow, who has spent many hours reading through the manuscript. criticizing the content.

A molecular view on the fundamental issues in polymer physics is provided with an aim at students in chemistry, chemical engineering, condensed matter physics and material science courses. An updated translation by the author, a renowned Chinese chemist, it has been proven to be an effective source of learning for many years. Up-to-date developments are reflected throughout the work in this concise presentation of the topic. The author aims at presenting the subject in an efficient manner, which makes this particularly suitable for teaching polymer physics in settings where time is limited, without having to sacrifice the extensive scope that this topic demands.

Polymer physics is one of the key courses not only in polymer science but also in material science. In his textbook Strobl presents the elements of polymer physics to the necessary extent in a very didactical way. His main focus is on the concepts and major phenomena of polymer physics, not just on mere physical methods. He has written the book in a personal style evaluating the concepts he is dealing with. Every student in polymer and materials science will be happy to have it on his shelf.

From the reviews: "...This book is a very useful addition to polymer literature, and it is a pleasure to recommend it to the polymer community." (J.E. Mark, University of Cincinnati, POLYMER NEWS)