Together, the nano explosion and the genomic revolution are ushering in a new frontier in drug delivery. In recent years we've seen how polymers can play a crucial role in controlling the rate of drug release, enhancing solubility and uptake, and limiting degradation and toxicity. In the very near future, they may well be used to deliver gene therapy. While Polymers in Drug Delivery offers much new insight for the veteran specialist, this work has been compiled with the non-specialist in mind. It includes contributions from many of the world's leading drug delivery specialists, yet avoids jargon and presents background information that initiates the next generation of scientists into the amazing work going on at the frontiers of this rapidly evolving science. Targeting specific issues at the forefront of drug delivery today, this engaging volume- * Outlines the issues that must be considered when selecting a polymer for fabricating a drug delivery agent or other medical devices * Explains the more commonly used methods by which polymers may be characterized prior to use * Profiles polymer matrices that have been used in the formulation of solid oral dosage forms, drug delivery scaffolds, and hydrogels * Examines the issues surrounding the encapsulation of biologics within microspheres * Explores the use of nanoparticulates, especially solid nanoparticles and nanocapsules prepared from largely-water-insoluble cyanoacrylate polymers * Discusses polymeric micelles and investigates the potential of soluble polymer prodrugs and polymer nanomedicines * Details the contribution made by polymers and dendrimers to the gene delivery effort, which may one day lead to effective treatments for largely incurable diseases Noting a dramatic paradigm shift that is bridging the gap between materials science and life science, the editor's have compiled this volume to paint an interdisciplinary portrait of drug delivery that will challenge young scientists to turn their attention and effort towards this critical branch of biomedicine. Containing state-of-the-art information for drug delivery scientists, it is also a great choice for medical and pharmaceutical students and others seeking an in-depth introduction to the field.

Handbook of Curatives and Crosslinkers presents the mechanisms of action of these additives, methods of their use, their effects on properties of transformed products, and their applications. Chapters cover the common use of curatives in many industrial products manufactured in large scale, such as adhesives, sealants, coatings, inks, explosives, propellants and foams, and in emerging products, such as optoelectronics, shape-memory applications, light-emitting diodes, and more. In addition, crosslinkers used in typical industrial processing methods, such as solar cells, vulcanization, adhesives, foams and roofing are covered. Each section presents the effect of the additive, including an evaluation of its chemical and physical properties.

Natural/Bio-fiber composites are emerging as a viable alternative to glass fiber composites, especially for automotive, building, and consumer product industries applications. Natural fibers are becoming one of the fastest growing additives for thermoplastics. Natural Fibers, Biopolymers, and Their Biocomposites presents comprehensive knowledge in the area of bio-fibers, biopolymers, and biocomposites in one text. Chapters provide a clear understanding of the present state and the growing utility of biocomposites. Contributors are foremost experts on biobased materials and together they provide the only book available that focuses on biobased materials.

This book represents the first in a series entitled Polymeric Foams: Technology and Applications. Generally, thermoplastic and thermoset foams have been treated as two separate practices in industry. Polymeric Foams: Mechanisms and Materials provides the basics of foaming in general, providing a convenient and strong foundation to those working in both thermoplastic and thermoset foams. The book addresses scientific principles behind polymeric foaming and presents foaming chemistry and physics, resin and blowing agents, and foaming mechanisms in separate chapters, thus providing an overall and fundamental understanding of foaming for polymeric foam products and processes.

Welding Skills, Processes and Practices Level 2 is THE textbook to support Welding and Fabrication courses and is an ideal training tool to support assessment practice and to underpin concepts and theory. The textbook has been specifically designed to align the major awarding body qualifications in welding and metal fabrication and the comprehensive coverage crosses from techniques and design and testing right down to interpersonal skills, health and safety and customer care.

Simulation Methods for Polymers is the only comprehensive source to delineate the technical steps and efficacy of contemporary polymer simulation methods using a highly instructive, easy-to-grasp format, and it offers a logical sequence of polymer physics background, methods, calculations, and application guidelines. Including coverage of recently developed techniques and algorithms for modeling and simulation, this reference/text also provides an introduction to the statistical mechanics of the various simulation techniques presented and explores coarse-graining, CONNFFESSIT simulation, dissipative particle dynamics, and dynamic density functional theory approaches.

Plastics possess properties that have revolutionized the manufacture of products in the 20th century and beyond. It remains critical to understand their behavior throughout their life cycle, from manufacture to use and eventually to reclamation and disposal. This volume highlights the most prominent tools in physical and chemical analysis techniques and applications. A practical reference for performing measurements, solving problems, and investigating behavioral phenomena, the editors advocate a phenomenological approach, relying on case studies and illustrations to represent possible outcomes of each technique and presenting the basic governing equations where necessary.

Citing recently realized applications for extruders as polymerization, modification, and degradation reactors and presenting a telling array of new research results and illustrative experimental cases, Reactive Extrusion Systems sheds light on the complex set of interactions underlying reactions in extruders. The book succeeds as a three-part survey of the chemical phenomena behind reactive extrusion, mechanisms operant in particular reactions, and approaches to tackling advanced engineering problems. Written by an accomplished field authority, it works through issues involving scale-up from laboratory to production-size equipment, process stability, and more.

Building on the success of its predecessor with completely revised material and six new chapters, the Handbook of Polypropylene and Polypropylene Composites, Second Edition responds to increasing interest and changing global trends in the manufacture and application of polypropylene resin. The authors highlight viable options for the manufacture of polypropylene composites to better accommodate market requirements across various industries. The second edition introduces chapters on high-purity submicron talc fillers with lamellar microstructures, the utilization of Wollastonite fibers for polypropylene reinforcement, and updated material on nanocomposite production using exfoliated clay treated with maleated polypropylene-based materials, among many other topics.

The "Databook of Antiblocking, Release, and Slip Additives" contains detailed information on over 300 important additives for polymers additives which are used to minimize adhesion, aid separation and enhance processing and end-applications for polymers. The variety of additives available makes this databook an invaluable source of information for industry, research, and academia.

Each additive is presented with data in the following categories: General Information; Physical Properties; Health and Safety; Ecological Properties; and Use and Performance. The Databook includes a large amount of data, from state, odor, and color to autoignition temperature and probability of biodegradation. Recommendations are given for specific products, processing methods and mold materials, and an assessment is given for each additive's features and benefits, enabling practitioners to select the correct additive for each situation.
Contains the most extensive data available on a large number of antiblocking, release and slip additives for polymersFeatures 130 data fields for each additive, divided into the following categories: General Information, Physical Properties, Health and Safety, Ecological Properties, and Use and PerformanceIncludes an assessment of benefits and properties of each additive, recommended dosages and processing methods"

Highlighting a broad range multiscale modeling and methods for anticipating the morphologies and the properties of interfaces and multiphase materials, this reference covers the methodology of predicting polymer properties and its potential application to a wider variety of polymer types than previously thought possible. A comprehensive source, the book features discussions of the interplay between thermodynamic and kinetic factors in multiphase materials, analytical and numerical methods for predicting thermoelastic and transport properties of multiphase materials, mechanical properties under large deformation, and influence of interfaces via simulations.

"Provides the latest authoritative research on the developments, technology, and applications of rubbery materials. Presents structures, manufacturing techniques, and processing details for natural and synthetic rubbers, rubber-blends, rubber composites, and thermoplastic elastomers. 80% revised and rewritten material covers major advances since publication of the previous edition."

Hierarchical Composite Materials provides an in-depth analysis of a class of advanced composites that have properties that are anisotropic due to structural organization at different length scales. Chapters address how ordering occurs from the atomic-scale up to the microstructure and how control of these factors leads to the final materials' properties. Manufacturing procedures, properties, and applications of different functionally graded materials are discussed in detail. This book is ideal for materials scientists, mechanical engineers, chemists and physicists.

A study of the physical, mechanical and corrosion resistant properties of all the most common commercially available plastics and elastomers. It offers examples of typical applications and describes methods of joining. The physical, mechanical and corrosion resistant properties of 32 thermoplastics, 20 thermosets, and 27 elastomers are provided. There are more than 300 tables and chemical structures.

"Describes new modification methods and applications for natural, synthetic, thermoplastic, and thermoset polymers that result from economic forces, commercial processes, and the latest research and development. Features chemical and physical technologies such as sulfonation, alkylation, acid/base hydrolysis, hydrogenation, stress orienting, annealing, crystallization, and more."

"Presents the latest knowledge on a wide range of topics in polymer science, including the dynamics, preparation, application, and physiochemical properties of polymer solutions and colloids; the adsorption characteristics at polymer surfaces; and the adhesion properties (including acid-base) of polymer surfaces."

Your search for the perfect polymers textbook ends here - with Polymer Science and Technology. By incorporating an innovative approach and consolidating in one volume the fundamentals currently covered piecemeal in several books, this efficient text simplifies the learning of polymer science.

The book is divided into three main sections: polymer fundamentals; polymer formation and conversion into useful articles; and polymer properties and applications. Polymer Science and Technology emphasizes the basic, qualitative understanding of the concepts rather than rote memorization or detailed mathematical analysis. Since the book focuses on the ultimate property of the finished product, it minimizes laborious descriptions of experimental procedures used for the characterization of polymers. Instead, the author highlights how the various stages involved in the production of the finished product influence its properties. Well-organized, clear-cut, and user-friendly, Polymer Science and Technology is an outstanding textbook for teaching junior and senior level undergraduates and first year graduate students in an introductory course covering the challenging subject of polymers.

Numerous practical problems connected to triboelectric phenomena remain unsolved in both the fabrication and behavior of polymer threads and fabrics in a variety of industrial articles. Using the results of unique experiments carried out in the countries of the former Soviet Union, this volume fills a gap in the science of tribology, presenting fundamental information on the nature of physical and chemical processes governing and accompanying tribodeformation and tribodisintegration of polymers. Details on electrophysical phenomena such as contact electrification and emergence of the electret state in polymer materials are also provided.

Distinguishing among blends, alloys and other types of combinations, clarifying terminology and presenting data on new processes and materials, this work present up-to-date and effective compounding techniques for polymers. It offers extensive analyses on the challenging questions that surround miscibility, compatibility, dynamic processing, interaction/phase behaviour, and computer simulations for predicting behaviours of polymer mixture and interaction.

Flexible polyurenthane foams of all types are a unique group of plastics materials, characterized by the fact that different sets of properties can be obtained by varying the levels of a small number of base components in the formulations. This book discusses the methodology for obtaining meaningful equations for correlating properties.

Over recent years a considerable amount of effort has been devoted, both in industry and academia, towards the incorporation of various macro, micro and nano sized fillers into polymers. There is also much interest in the evaluation of various polymer properties with respect to a wide set of applications. The advances in nanotechnology together with the development in material sciences has improved the shortcomings of these materials over the decade. This book covers the latest advances in the field of polymer nanocomposites and polymer composites for varied applications. The major topics discussed in the book include: * Nanostructured materials for energy applications * Nanostructured polymercomposites * Bio-polymers * Nanostructured polymers for biomedical applications The book contains extended and updated research papers that were initially selected for the ICAMP-2017 conference which focused on advances in polymer materials. The book is ideal for researchers and practitioners in polymer science and materials science as well as for graduate students in polymer chemistry, materials science, nanotechnology and biomedical engineering.

This volume reviews a wide range of processing methods which are currently being used for plastics and composites. Special focus lies on advancements in automation, in development of machines and new software for modeling, new materials for ease in manufacturing and strategies to increase productivity.

Details laboratory and industrial synthesis and applications of oligomers-suggesting practical solutions to the on-the-job problems as well as exploring processing devices and techniques for industrial-scale production of new oligomer types.

Ranging from the basic principles to the forefront of microlithography, this unique volume explores the science and technology of lithographic processes and resist materials and summarizes the most recent innovations in semiconductor manufacturing. Considers future trends in lithography and resist material technology Reviewing the interaction of light, electron beams, and X-rays with resist materials, Microlithography Fundamentals in Semiconductor Devices and Fabrication Technology explains the theoretical basis of semiconductor fabrication presents the principles of optical image transfer discusses the chemical amplification of resist materials to improve sensitivity describes resolution enhancement and the limits of resolution in resist materials investigates contrast enhancement materials, multilayer resist, and dry development processes introduces a rigorous solution of two-dimensional light wave diffraction for the first time covers practical aspects of typical lithographic processes and more Featuring over 800 references, tables, drawings, photographs, and equations, Microlithography Fundamentals in Semiconductor Devices and Fabrication Technology is ideal for physicists; lithographic, electrical, optical, semiconductor, integrated circuit process, chemical, and process equipment engineers; resist and polymer chemists and photochemists; materials scientists; and upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in these disciplines.