Thisbook continuesthe tradition ofproviding the scientificcommunity with infonnation on some ofthe most important advances reported at aseries ofconferences on Frontiers ofPolymers and Advanced Materials. The particular meeting covered in this proceedings volume was held in KualaLumpur, Malaysia, from January 16th through the 20th, 1995. It follows earlier proceedings, also published by Plenum, for a conference in New Delhi in 1991, and another in Jakarta in 1993. All of these conferences focused on the most recent and important advances in a wide range of carefully chosen subject areas dealing with advanced materials and new technologies. TheMalaysiaConference was organized by the Malaysian MinistryofScience, Technology and Environment; Malaysian Industry-Government Group for Higher Technology; Standards and Industrial Research Institute ofMalaysia; State University ofNew York at Buffalo; and Malaysian Plastic Manufacturers Association. The stated goals ofthe conference were: To highlight advances and new findings in Polymers and Advanced Materials To bring together leading international scientists, engineers and top level industrial managementfor discussionsonthe CUTTent status ofadvanced materials, new technologies and industrial opportunities To foster global communication in polymers and advanced materials technology. Tbe Malaysianconferencecoveredbytheseproceedingsemphasized"composites and blends," ''high-performance materials," ''materials for photonics," ''materials for electronics," ''biomaterials'', "recycling of materials," "sol-gel and processed materials," "advanced materials from natural products," and ''multifunctional and smart materials." There was also a separate symposium on ''business opportunities.""

Olefin Upgrading Catalysis by Nitrogen-based Metal Complexes II: State-of-the-art and Perspectives provides a critical review of the state-of-the-art developments in industrially relevant processes connected to efficient and selective olefin upgrading. Specific attention is devoted to catalysts containing imine- and amine-based ligands.

All the chapters in this book have been designed to provide a systematic account of the vast amount of information available for this type of catalyst as well as to highlight the factors that ultimately control the catalyst's performance and productivity. A comprehensive panorama of catalyst precursors is presented, spanning from group 10 -diimine complexes and iron and cobalt 2,6-bis(imino)pyridine derivatives, to vanadium, chromium, titanium, zirconium and lanthanide complexes supported by nitrogen-containing ligands. The authors of this collective work are currently involved in the development of imine-based catalysts for efficient and selective olefin upgrading and the majority of them have dedicated most of their scientific career to this important field. In writing this book, their major goal is to transfer as many ideas and experiences as possible to the global audience of scientists engaged in this area of research."

Multiscale Fibrous Scaffolds in Regenerative Medicine, by Sowmya Srinivasan, R. Jayakumar, K. P. Chennazhi, Erica J. Levorson, Antonios G. Mikos and Shantikumar V. Nair; Stem Cells and Nanostructures for Advanced Tissue Regeneration, by Molamma P. Prabhakaran, J. Venugopal, Laleh Ghasemi-Mobarakeh, Dan Kai Guorui Jin and Seeram Ramakrishna; Creating Electrospun Nanofiber-Based Biomimetic Scaffolds for Bone Regeneration, by Eleni Katsanevakis, Xuejun Wen and Ning Zhang; Synthetic/Biopolymer Nanofibrous Composites as Dynamic Tissue Engineering Scaffolds, by J. A. Kluge and R. L. Mauck; Electrospun Fibers as Substrates for Peripheral Nerve Regeneration, by Jorg Mey, Gary Brook, Dorothee Hodde and Andreas Kriebel; Highly Aligned Polymer Nanofiber Structures: Fabrication and Applications in Tissue Engineering, by Vince Beachley, Eleni Katsanevakis, Ning Zhang, Xuejun Wen; Electrospinning of Biocompatible Polymers and Their Potentials in Biomedical Applications, by Pitt Supaphol, Orawan Suwantong, Pakakrong Sangsanoh, Sowmya Srinivasan, Rangasamy Jayakumar and Shantikumar V. Nair; Electrospun Nanofibrous Scaffolds-Current Status and Prospects in Drug Delivery, by M. Prabaharan, R. Jayakumar and S. V. Nair.; Biomedical Applications of Polymer/Silver Composite Nanofibers, by R. Jayakumar, M. Prabaharan, K. T. Shalumon, K. P. Chennazhi and S. V. Nair.-"

This volume includes a number of selected papers of the international conference "Colloidal Aspects of Lipids," held in June 1997 at Lund, Sweden. In conjunction with the conference Professor Kare Larsson, well-known and respected as a leading scientist in this field of food technology during the recent decades, was honored.

I used the opportunity of this edition to correct some minor mistakes and clarify, wherever it possible, exposition of the theory in comparison with the previous edition of this book (Kluwer, Dordrechtet cet, 2000). It provokes - largement of the book, though I tried to present the modern theory of thermic motion of long macromolecules in compact form. I have tried to accumulate the common heritage and to take into account di?erent approaches in the theory of dynamics of linear polymers, at least, to understand and make clear the importance of various ideas for explanation of relaxation phenomena in linear polymers, to present recent development in the ?eld. The theory of non-equilibrium phenomena in polymer systems is based on the fundamental principles of statistical physics. However, the peculiarities of thestructureandthebehaviourofthesystemsnecessitatetheimplementation of special methods and heuristic models that are di?erent from those for gases and solids, so that polymer dynamics has appeared to be a special branch of physicsnow. Themonographcontainsdiscussionsofthemainprinciplesofthe theoryof slowrelaxationphenomena in linearpolymers, elaborated inthe last decades. The basic model of a macromolecule, which allows us a consistent explanation of di?erent relaxation phenomena (di?usion, neutron scattering, viscoelasticity, optical birefringence), remains to be a coarse-grained or be- spring model, considered in di?erent environments: viscous, to describe the behaviourofdilutesolutions,orviscoelastic,todescribethebehaviourofboth weakly and strongly entangled systems.

The role of high pressure experiments in the discovery of supercon ducting materials with a T. above liquid nitrogen temperature has demon strated the importance of such experiments. The same role holds true in the tailoring of materials for optoelectronic devices. In addition, much progress has been made recently in the search for metallic hydro gen, and the application of high pressure in polymer research has brought forth interesting results. These facts together with the suc cess of previous small size meetings (such as the "First International Conference on the Physics of Solids at High Pressure", held in 1965 in Tucson, Arizona, U. S. A. ; "High Pressure and Low Temperature Physics", held in 1977 in Cleveland, Ohio, U. S. A. ; and "Physics of Solids Under High Pressure", held in 1981 in bad Honnef, Germany), motivated us to organize a workshop with emphasis on the newest results and trends in these fields of high pressure research. Furthermore, it was intended to mix experienced and young scien tists to realize an idea best expressed in a letter by Prof. Weinstein: "I think it is an excellent idea. I have often felt that the number of excellent young researchers in the high pressure field need an opportu nity to put forward their work with due recognition. " Thanks to the support of the key speakers, we were able to achieve this goal and had more than 50\ young participants.

The art and science of macromolecular architecture is based on synthesis, analysis, processing, and evaluation of physical properties of polymers. The growing specificity of available synthetic methods and the increasing refinement of analytical and physical analysis are gradually providing a deeper insight into structure-property relationships of polymers, upon which many applications can be based. This book deals with recent methods for polymer synthesis. Those that lead to specific structures have been selected especially. Background, mechanism scope and limitations, and illustrative procedures are given for each method. With this layout the editor hopes that the book will provide a practical guideline, for the synthetic polymer chemist in industry or at a university graduate school, on how to apply the methods in the design of new polymer structures. The editor is grateful to the authors not only for their contributions containing interesting new developments in polymer synthesis, but also for the way they have fitted their text into the general framework of the book. The elegant chemistry described in the following chapters will, it is hoped, inspire more organic chemists to apply their skills to polymer synthesis, where the beauty of organic chemistry in terms of structural control and reactivity may be even more apparent than in the low molecular field.

Many chemical processes that are important to society take place at boundaries between phases. Understanding these processes is critical in order for them to be subject to human control. The building of theoretical or computational models of them puts them into a theoretical framework in terms of which the behavior of the system can be understood on a detailed level. Theoretical and computational models are often capable of giving descriptions of interfacial phenomena that are more detailed, on a molecular level, than can be obtained through experimental observation. Advances in computer hardware have also made possible the treatment of larger and chemically more interesting systems. The study of interfacial phenomena is a multi-disciplinary endeavor which requires collaboration and communication among researchers in different fields and across different types of institutions. Because there are many important problems in this field much effort is being expended to understand these processes by industrial laboratories as well as by groups at universities. Our conference titled "Theoretical and Computational Approaches to Interface Phenomena" held at South Dakota State University, August 2-4, 1993 brought together over thirty scientists from industry and academia and three countries in the western hemisphere to discuss the modeling of interfacial phenomena.

The idea for this book came from discussions among participants in a symposium on biotechnical applications at the "Pacifichem 89" meeting in Honolulu. It was the majority opinion of this group that a volume dedicated to biotechnical and biomedical applications of PEG chemistry would enhance research and development in this area. Though the book was conceived at the Honolulu meeting, it is not a proceedings of this symposium. Several groups who did not participate in this meeting are repre sented in the book, and the book incorporates much work done after the meeting. The book does not include contributions in all related areas to which PEG chemistry has been applied. Several invited researchers declined to parti.:ipate, and there is not enough space in this single volume to properly cover all submissions. Chapter I-an overview of the topic-discusses in brief applications not given detailed coverage in specifically devoted chapters. The following topics are covered: introduction to and fundamental properties of PEG and derivatives in Chapters 1-3; separations using aqueous polymer two-phase partitioning in Chapters 4-6; PEG-proteins as catalysts in biotechnical applications in Chapters 7 and 8; biomedical applications of PEG-proteins in Chapters 9-13; PEG modified surfaces for a variety of biomedical and biotechnical applications in Chapters 14-20; and synthesis of new PEG derivatives in Chapters 21 and 22.

Polymers in Solution was written for scientists and engineers who have serious research interests in newer methods for characterization of polymer solutions, but who are not seasoned experts in the theoretical and experimental aspects of polymer science. In particular, it is assumed that the reader is not familiar with the development of theoretical notions in conformational statistics and the dynamics of chainlike molecules; how these two seemingly diverse theoretical topics are related; and the role played by polymer-solvent interactions. Chapter 1 thus presents background material that introduces most of the essential concepts, including some of the mathematical apparatus most commonly used in these areas of theory. This introduction is followed by five chapters that are more closely related to particular experimental techniques. These chapters introduce further theoretical notions as needed. Three of the chapters present con siderable detail on the experimental methods, while two other chapters deal more with the interpretation of experimental results in terms of current theories. Although neutron scattering has become an almost standard technique for the study of conformational properties of macromolecules in the solid state, there has been less emphasis on its application for characterization of polymer molecules in solution. Chapter 4 covers this growing area of application."

The chapters in this collection are from papers which were presented at a symposium on solid-state NMR of polymers. A two-part program on available NMR techniques applicable to solid polymer analysis was presented at the 3rd Chemical Congress of North American held in Toronto, Ontario, June 5-10,1988. The program was sponsored by the Division of Polymer Chemistry with support provided by the Division, its Industrial Sponsors, and the Donors of the Petroleum Research Fund administered by the American Chemical Society. Co-organizers included Professor Colin Fyfe of the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada), Professor Hans Spiess of the Max Planck Institut fur Polymerforschung (Mainz, West Germany), and myself. The full-day tutorial, which was free to registered attendees, covered the range of topics. The purpose of the tutorial was to provide a basic introduction to the field so that newcomers to its present and future applications could develop sufficient understanding to learn effectively from the subsequent symposium. The first talk attempted to give listeners a feel for the way a novice spectroscopist can learn to use the various NMR techniques to explore his own areas of interest. Simple experiments can provide unique information about solid polymers that can be useful in interpreting synthetic results and in relating solid-state conformation, morphology and molecular motion to physical properties.

This book brings together selected contributions both on the fundamental information on the physics and chemistry of these materials, new physical ideas and decisive experiments. It constitutes both an insightful treatise and a handy reference for specialists and graduate students working in solid state physics and chemistry, material science and related fields.

This volume includes 35 contributions to the 24th Conference of the European Colloid and Interface Society which took place in September 2010 in Prague. The contributions from leading scientists cover a broad spectrum of the following topics: * Self-assembling, Stimuli-responsive and Hierarchically Organized Systems * Colloid, Polymer and Polyelectrolyte Solutions; Concentrated Systems and Gels * Thin Films, Interfaces and Surfaces; Wetting Phenomena * Novel Nano-to-Mesostructured Functional Materials * Biologically Important and Bioinspired Systems; Pharmaceutical and Medical Applications

The development of "tailormade" electrode surfaces using electroactive polymer films has been one of the most active and exciting areas of electrochemistry over the last 15 years. The properties of these materials have been examined by a wide range of scientists from a variety of perspectives, and now electroactive polymer research is considered to be a reasonably mature area of research endeavor. Much is now understood about the fundamental mechanism of conduction in these materials. A wide range of electrochemical techniques may be used to probe the conductivity processes in these materials, and more recently, a number of in situ spectroscopic techniques have been used to further elucidate the structure of these materials. The in situ spectroscopies and allied techniques have also been used to obtain correlations between structure and redox activity. The applications found for electroactive polymers are many and varied, and range from thin film amperometric chemical and biological sensors, electrocatalytic systems, drug delivery devices, and advanced battery systems through to molecular electronic devices. The research literature on electroactive polymers is truly enormous and can daunt even the most hardened researcher. The vast quantity of material reported in the literature can also intimidate beginning graduate students. Hence the present book. The original idea for this book arose as a result of a series of lectures on chemically modified eiectrodes and electroactive polymers given by the writer to final-year undergraduates at Trinity College Dublin.

Water-based technology has undergone revolutionary changes during the past two decades. Interest in the properties and uses of water-based coatings, paints and inks has continued to grow since the establishment of the Clean Air Act of 1970. The present book is devoted to recent developments and trends in water-based coating and ink technology. This volume is divided in three broad catagories: (1) Additives and Water-based Coating/Ink Systems, (2) Surface Modifications and Wettability, and (3) Ink/Coating Formulations and Their characterization. The role of various additives to improve the performance and properties of water-based coatings with special reference to surface phenomena such as wettability, adhesion, surface energies, dispersion stability, particle size and size distribution are presented in these sections. This volume documents the proceedings of the International symposium on Surface Phenomena and Additives in Water-Based Coatings and Printing Technology sponsored by the 21st Annual Meeting of the Fine Particle Society (FPS). This meeting was held in San Diego, california, AUgust 21-25, 1990. The symposium upon which this volume is based was organized in four sessions emphasizing several basic and applied aspects of water-based coatings and printing technology. Major topics discussed include advances in water-based technology, water-based flexo and gravure inks, hydrophobically-modified cellulosic thickeners, organosilicones, uv curable silicone release coatings, surface characterization of Ti02 pigments, polymer substrates, flexographic plates and coating films, pigment wetting and dispersing agents, hydrotrope effect in emulsion polymers, film thickness control, particle size measurements, rheological properties, and statistically designed mixtures for ink formulations.

This volume contains the proceedings of the 28th Europhysics Conference on Macromolecular Physics held in Ulm, Germany, in September 1993. The topic covers a broad scope within the field of polymer science. In its early days, interest was focused on the nature of the melt and of the glass transition. The latter phenomen underwent a pronounced renewal with the advent of the mode coupling theory, and polymers constitute only one class of substances within this context. Consequently, this volume considers the glass transition from different points of view. It is the aim of this publication to demonstrate the state of the art of this evolution by a balanced presentation of the subject that considers experimental work, theory, and computer stimulation techniques.

Ultracentrifugation contains the proceedings of the VIII. same-named symposium held in 1993, at Osnabruck, FRG. The volume presents the current concepts in analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) including: . biochemical and biophysical applications . characterization of polyelectrolytes, synthetic polymers, gels and lattices . modern, fully computerized analytical ultracentrifuge Optima XL-A . future technical developments."

After an introductory chapter, the processing, microstructure, and properties of various ceramic materials, reinforcements, and their composites are described. A separate chapter is devoted to processing of ceramic reinforcements, with a special emphasis on fibers. Processing of ceramic matrix composites is the next chapter, which includes novel techniques such as sol-gel processing and ceramics from polymeric precursors. The next four chapters cover the subjects of interface region in ceramic composites, mechanical and physical properties, and the role of thermal stresses and the important subject of toughness enhancement. Laminated composites made of ceramics are described in a separate chapter. Finally, a chapter is devoted to various applications of ceramic matrix composites. Throughout the text, the underlying relationships between the components of the triad: processing, microstructure, and properties are brought out. An exhaustive list of references and suggested reading is provided.

3 In 1992 the annual world production of plastics reached 102 x 1()6m at a value of 3 over US$300 billion, while that of steel was 50 x1()6m ata value ofUS$l25 billion (Table 1. 1). Furthermore, from 1980 to 1990, plastics production increased by 62%, while thatofsteeldecreasedby 21%. Considering theunevenpolymerconsumption around theworld,polymerproductionwillhave toincreasebya factor often before currently recorded levels ofplastics sales in developed countries willbe universally reached. Polymers are the fastest growing structural materials. In addition, the polymer blend segment of the plastics industry increases at a rate about three times higher than thewhole. The aim of thisbook is to trace the historicalevolution of the polymer blends industry. Table 1. 1 World production of steel and plastics for 1992 Production Steel Plastics 410 102* Production volume (Mt/year) 3 Production volume (M(m )/year) 51 102 Production value (billion US$/year) 125 310 Growth from 1980to 1990 (%) -21 -1;62 ,. 121 Mt/year in 1996 A polymer (from the Greek poly = manyand meros = units) is a substancecomposed ofmacromoleculesbuiltby covalentlyjoiningatleast50 molecular segments, called mel'S. The word polymer was introduced in 1832 by Jons Jacob Berzelius for sub- stances thatmayhaveidenticalchemicalcompositionbutdifferinmolecularweight (e. g. , acetylene, benzene and styrene, having the formula CnH with n == 2,6and 8, n respectively). During the years 1859-1863, Louren~o reported that condensation of ethylene glycol with ethylene dibromide resulted in a mixture of ethers, whose members, separated by distillation, were identified as HD-(C2l4D-)n-H with n == 2 to 6 (Stahl, 1981).