This volume contains studies on the molecular organisation on interfaces and nanoparticles. The contributions were presented during the 40. General Meeting (Hauptversammlung) of the Kolloid-Gesellschaft in Potsdam in September 2001 and are related to the subject "Colloids and Life Science." Therefore, a diversity of papers were collected covering a large field: synthesis of polymer colloids, biominerals and nanoparticles, investigations on monolayers, lyotropic mesophases, polymeric surfactants, micellar transitions, supramolecular compounds for modifying polymers, solid particles for emulsion stabilisers, and adsorbents for odour control.

This volume includes 20 contributions of the 12th meeting on Analytical Ultracentrifugation from March 1-2, 2001 in Duisburg, Germany. Various fields of ultracentrifugation are covered concerning research problems in biochemistry, biophysical chemistry and macromolecular chemistry as well as interacting systems. New investigations concerning the sedimentation theory are presented. The phase transition of gels is dealt with, as is the sedimentation-diffusion equilibrium of gels. One section contains the hydrodynamics of biopolymers.

From the reviews:

..".This text provides an excellent introduction to each of the discussed topics as well as providing an up-to-date review of the current bodies of work while highlighting areas that still require research for those who are working within the field." (Alaa S. Abd-El-Aziz, POLYMER NEWS, Vol.30, No.4)

This volume contains a peer reviewed selection of the papers presented at the highly successful fifteenth meeting of the European Colloid and Interface Society which was held in Coimbra, Portugal in September 2001 and highlights some of the important advances in this area. The topics covered include Self Assembly in Mixed Systems, Surface Modification, Biological and Biomimetic Systems, Theory and Modelling, New Techniques and Developments, Food and Pharmaceuticals, Dynamics at Interfaces and Mesoscopic and Mesoporous Systems. The volume is of interest to both academic and industrial scientists working with colloidal and interfacial systems in chemistry, physics and biology.

The Xth European Colloid and Interface Society (ECIS) Conference was conducted jointly with its Finnish counterpart (PKS-YKS) in Abo (Turku), Finland, in September 1996.
The focus was placed on the following topics:
- Properties of microemulsion systems; - Structure and interactions in thin films; - Biocolloids and vesicles; - Structure and interactions in dispersions; - Polymers at solid interfaces; - Polymers in solutions.
This volume presents a balanced and representative selection of the papers presented at the conference.

Dedicated to Professor Manfred Gordon on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday

"Imagination and shrewd guesswork are powerful instruments for acquiring scientific knowledge . . . " 1. H. van't Hoff The last decades have witnessed a rapid growth of quantum chemistry and a tremendous increase in the number of very accurate ab initio calculations of the electronic structure of molecules yielding results of admirable accuracy. This dramatic progress has opened a new stage in the quantum mechanical description of matter at the molecular level. In the first place, highly accurate results provide severe tests of the quantum mecha nics. Secondly, modern quantitative computational ab initio methods can be synergetically combined with various experimen tal techniques thus enabling precise numerical characterization of molecular properties better than ever anticipated earlier. However, the role of theory is not exhausted in disclosing the fundamental laws of Nature and production of ever increasing sets of data of high accuracy. It has to provide additionally a means of systematization, recognition of regularities, and ratio nalization of the myriads of established facts avoiding in this way complete chaos. Additional problems are represented by molecular wavefunctions provided by the modern high-level computational quantum chemistry methods. They involve, in principle, all the information on molecular system, but they are so immensely complex that can not be immediately understood in simple and physically meaningful terms. Both of these aspects, categorization and interpretation, call for conceptual models which should be preferably pictorial, transparent, intuitively appealing and well-founded, being sometimes useful for semi quantitative purposes."

This volume includes 19 contributions to the 13th International Symposium on Analytical Ultracentrifugation which took place at the university of Osnabruck on March 6th and 7th, 2003. The contributions from leading scientists cover a broad spectrum of topics concerning: Technical Methods, Data Analysis, Innovations; Polymers, Colloids, Supramolecular Systems; Biological and Interaction Systems; Hydrodynamics and Modelling.

Due to the increasing significance of Analytical Ultracentrifugation for both scientific and technical applications, this book will be an essential source of information with respect to recent developments and results related to this important analytical method."

The 13th Conference of the European Colloid and Interface Society (ECIS 99) was held in September 1999 in Dublin, Ireland. It brought together scientists from academic research and industry within the field of physics and chemistry of colloids and interfaces. The Conference focused on the following topics: - Surfactant colloids;
- Polymer colloids and solid particles;
- Food colloids;
- Soft matter interfaces;
- Biosystems;
- Rheology;
- Experimental methods in colloid and interface science.

Organometallic chemistry is a well established research area at the interface of organic and inorganic chemistry. In recent years this field has undergone a ren aissance as our understanding of organometallic structure, properties and mechanism has opened the way for the design of organometallic compounds and reactions tailored to the needs of such diverse areas as medicine, biology, materials and polymer sciences and organic synthesis. For example, in the de velopment of new catalytic processes, organometallic chemistry is helping meet the challenge to society that the economic and environmental necessities of the future pose. As this field becomes increasingly interdisciplinary, we recognize the need for critical overviews of new developments that are of broad significance. This is our goal in starting this new series Topics in Organometallic Chemistry. The scope of coverage includes a broad range of topics of pure and applied or ganometallic chemistry, where new breakthroughs are being achieved that are of significance to a larger scientific audience. Topics in Organometallic Chemistry differs from existing review series in that each volume is thematic, giving an overview of an area that has reached a stage of maturity such that coverage in a single review article is no longer possible. Furthermore, the treatment addresses a broad audience of researchers, who are not specialists in the field, starting at the graduate student level. Discussion of possible future research directions in the areas covered by the individual volumes is welcome."

The word Polyethylene was probably first pronounced in a lecture which M. P. E. Berthelot delivered on April ,27, 1863 to the Chemical Society in Paris, reporting on the "polymerization" of various simple organic compounds (1). Much later this work appeared twice in the literature before the classical ICI breakthrough in the 1930's which is so colorfully described in Ballard's lecture. Once it came up at the end of the last century when H. von Pechmann obtained "a white flocculant material" from the decomposition of diazomethane which, one year later, was termed to be "polymethylene" - (CH ) - from E. Bamberger 2 and F. Tschiemer (1). At that time the investigators were disappointed about this product because it was not what they had expected to find in their experiments. As a result any further work was discontinued. The second time that the word polyethylene appeared in the literature to describe a "white solid powder" was in 1930 when C. S. Marvel and M. E. P. Friedericks (2) attempted to prepare alkylated As compounds in which all five valencies were covalently bonded to five monovalent-aTkyl groups. They reacted Tetra-ethyl-arsenium bromide with butyllithium and expected to get tetra ethyl butyl arsenium. Instead they obtained LiBr + AsEt3 + gaseous products. Delicate and somewhat time-consuming analysis gave a surprising result: ethane and C 's were there in the 4 expected quantities but ethylene was missing - or almost missing - in the gas mixture.

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Epoxy resins are regarded as thermosetting resins and have found various c- mercial applications after crosslinking with adequate curing agents [1-3]. H- ever, some epoxy resins have been used as thermoplastic resins without curing agents. Figure 1 shows the applications of epoxy resins that are classi?ed to three categories: thermosets in combination with curing agents, thermoplastics wi- out curing agents, and raw materials for modi?cation. The use in thermoplastics is not popular compared with the two other applications. Typical thermoplastic applications are found in stabilizers for vinyl resins, toners for copying - chines, ?re retardants for engineering plastics, and sizing material for glass or carbon ?bers. The epoxy resin most frequently used is the oligomer of the diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) whose chemical structure is shown below [1-3]. The DGEBA is composed of linear molecules with different molecular weights according to the variation of the repeated number (n) in the structural formula.

Molecular manipulation of nano- and microstructures paves the way to produce organic polymer materials by design. Such architectures comprise both the synthesis and the kinetics and thermodynamics of macromolecular organization and is the theme of this volume. The book consists of four articles reviewing living polymerization to produce precisely defined linear polyesters, comparing them to other living polymerization techniques. The articles also deal with the synthesis of polymeric dendrimers, either by the convergent or divergent approach; block copolymers synthesis, to define micromorphology in high performance polymers; and thereby tailoring their thermal, chemical, mechanical and dielectrical properties, and finally kinetics and thermodynamics for microstructural organization in macroporous thermosets.

This review shows that the measurement of viscoelastic properties is a powerful tool in the study of thermoreversible gels. Although many conclusions may be drawn about network development and its structure, it is also shown that the use of additional techniques (e.g. small angle S-ray and neutron scattering techniques and optical rotation) and the combination with thermodynamics and network models, widens the insight in the crosslinking process and the gel structure temendously. A general Introduction is followed by eight Chapters concerning synthetic polymers (PVC, PVAL, PMMA, PS, PAN, PE, ABA blockcopolymers and LCP's) and four Chapters concerning biopolymers (gelatin, agarose, carrageenans and gellan gum).

Injection moulding is one of the most important methods of manufacturing plastics products. Through the development of sophisticated micro processor control systems, the modern injection moulding machine is capable of producing precision mouldings with close tolerances in large numbers and with excellent reproducibility. This capability, however, is often limited by the lack of a proper appreciation of mould design. The mould, or tool as it is often called, is at the heart of the injection moulding process. Its basic function is to accept the plastic melt from the injection unit and cool it to the desired shape prior to ejection. It is not, however, simply a matter of the mould having an impression of the shape to be moulded. Many other factors have to be taken into account - for example, the ability to fill the mould impression properly and efficiently without inducing weaknesses in the moulding and the efficient cooling of the moulding in order to maximise production rates without diminishing the quality of the moulding. In addition, the type of mould, gate and runner system, and ejection system which will best meet the needs of a particular job specification have to be determined. In our experience lack of attention to such factors leads to the mould limiting the ability of the injection moulding machine and preventing the process as a whole from achieving its true potential.

Databook of Curatives and Crosslinkers contains extensive data on the most important curatives and crosslinkers in use today. Forty groups of curatives/crosslinkers are included in the book. They include the following chemical groups of additives: acids, acrylamides, aldehydes, amides, amidoamines, amines, anhydrides, aziridines, borates, epoxy-functionalized polymers, carbamides, carbodiimides, chitosan derivatives, cyanamides, diols, glutarates, glycols, graphene oxide derivatives, hydantoin glycols, hydrazides, hydroxides, hydroxyl-containing moieties, imidazoles, isocyanates, isocyanurates, ketimines, maleimides, melamines, novolacs, peroxides, peroxyketals, phenols, polyols, salts, silanes, siloxanes, thiols, titanates, and ziconium derivatives. In total, 416 additives are included in the book.Information on each additive is divided into five sections: General Information, covering name, CAS #, active matter, amine nitrogen, chemical class, cure schedule, and more, Physical Properties, covering odor, color, density, freezing point, gel time, particle size, thin film set time, and more, Health and Safety, covering autoignition temperature, dermal LD50, exposure limits, flash point, and more, Ecological Properties, covering toxicity to algae, bacteria, and fish, sewage treatment, and more, and Use and Performance, offering information on manufacturers, outstanding properties, and more. To improve navigation throughout the book, four indices have been generated, as follows. The index of curative names is placed at the beginning of the book. Indices of the chemical composition of curatives/crosslinkers, their application for different polymers, and product applications can be found at the end of this book.

The second edition of this textbook is identical with its fourth German edi tion and it thus has the same goals: precise definition of basic phenomena, a broad survey of the whole field, integrated representation of chemistry, physics, and technology, and a balanced treatment of facts and comprehen sion. The book thus intends to bridge the gap between the often oversimpli fied introductory textbooks and the highly specialized texts and monographs that cover only parts of macromolecular science. The text intends to survey the whole field of macromolecular science. Its organization results from the following considerations. The chemical structure of macromolecular compounds should be inde pendent of the method of synthesis, at least in the ideal case. Part I is thus concerned with the chemical and physical structure of polymers. Properties depend on structure. Solution properties are thus discussed in Part II, solid state properties in Part III. There are other reasons for dis cussing properties before synthesis: For example, it is difficult to understand equilibrium polymerization without knowledge of solution thermodynamics, the gel effect without knowledge of the glass transition temperature, etc. Part IV treats the principles of macromolecular syntheses and reactions.

With the aim of providing a deeper insight into possible mechanisms of biological self-organization, this thesis presents new approaches to describe the process of self-assembly and the impact of spatial organization on the function of membrane proteins, from a statistical physics point of view. It focuses on three important scenarios: the assembly of membrane proteins, the collective response of mechanosensitive channels and the function of the twin arginine translocation (Tat) system. Using methods from equilibrium and non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, general conclusions were drawn that demonstrate the importance of the protein-protein interactions. Namely, in the first part a general aggregation dynamics model is formulated, and used to show that fragmentation crucially affects the efficiency of the self-assembly process of proteins. In the second part, by mapping the membrane-mediated forces into a simplified many-body system, the dynamic and equilibrium behaviour of interacting mechanosensitive channels is derived, showing that protein agglomeration strongly impacts its desired function. The final part develops a model that incorporates both the agglomeration and transport function of the Tat system, thereby providing a comprehensive description of this self-organizing process.