Providing an up-to-date overview of the field, this reference presents extensive discussions on a wide range of approaches for molecular imprinting written by pioneering experts on the subject. Molecularly Imprinted Materials: Science and Technology offers experimental protocols that exemplify specific techniques, as well as detailed surveys on molecular imprinting research and applications. Provides a comprehensive tutorial for those who wish to learn basic techniques and make new contributions to the field, as well as in-depth discussions, guidelines, and experimental protocols to help beginners gain a jump-start in the field of molecular imprinting The book examines the recent evolution of the technology, offering step-by-step instruction on methods to design and optimize molecularly imprinted polymers and suggestions, recommendations, and troubleshooting strategies for alternative approaches and improvements discussed in the text. about the editors... MINGDI YAN is Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Portland State University, Oregon. After serving as a senior research scientist at Ikonos Corporation, Portland, Oregon, she joined the Portland State University faculty and now leads a research group in organic and polymeric materials science. She received the B.S. degree in polymer physics from the University of Science and Technology, China, and the Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry from the University of Oregon. OLOF RAMSTROM is Associate Professor, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. After serving with Professor Jean-Marie Lehn at Universite Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France, he joined the Royal Institute of Technology and is now leading a group specializingin supramolecular chemistry and molecular recognition. He received the M.Sc. degree in chemical engineering and the Ph.D. degree in bioorganic chemistry/applied biochemistry from Lund Institute of Technology/Lund University, Sweden.

This book is addressed to Master and PhD students as well as researchers from academia and industry. It aims to provide the key definitions to understand the issues related to interface modifications in natural fibre based composites considering the particular supramolecular and micro- structures encountered in plant fibres. A particular emphasis is given to the modification and functionalization strategies of natural fibres and their impact on biocomposites behaviour and properties. Commonly used and newly developed treatment processes are described in view of scaling-up natural fibre treatments for their implementation in industry. Finally, a detailed and comprehensive description of the tools and methodologies developed to investigate and characterize surfaces and interfaces in natural fibre based composites is reviewed and discussed.

This brief explores polysaccharides, the most abundant family of naturally occurring polymers, and explains how they have gained considerable attention in recent decades as a source of innovative bio-based materials. The authors present a range of material including an extensive array of polysaccharide hybrid nanomaterials with distinct applications. The most recent knowledge regarding polysaccharide-based hybrid nanomaterials with metal and metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs), carbon nanotubes and graphene is presented as well as the main polysaccharides, namely cellulose, chitin and chitosan, starch and their most relevant derivatives. The book features a description of important production methodologies, properties, and applications of these types of hybrids.

The brief explains in simple terms the essentials of polymer chemistry and how polymers came to be discovered by pioneers in this field. It relates the many uses of polymers, including those not widely recognised by the lay person. The chemistry of polymerisation and the influence of chemical structure and additives on properties are described. Ethical issues are considered, especially in the context of huge tonnages of plastics. Finally short paragraphs on more than 30 common polymers are listed chronologically with chemical structures, properties and applications. It will appeal to those with connections to or within the plastics, rubber and textile industries, science students, members of other science disciplines using polymers, as well as people just curious to know about everyday plastics.

This brief introduces the classification and mechanism of density gradient ultracentrifugation (DGUC) method with rich examples showing the versatility of such an efficient separation technique. It also gives a strict mathematical description and a computational optimization model to predict the best separation parameters for a given colloidal system. The concept of "Lab in a tube" is proposed in the last chapter, which allows the size-property relationship investigation, synthetic optimization and reaction/assembly mechanism exploration etc.

Within the scope of this work, Steffen Ropers evaluates the viscoelastic and temperature-dependent nature of the bending behavior of thermoplastic composite sheets in order to further enhance the predictability of the draping simulation. This simulation is a useful tool for the development of robust large scale processes for continuously fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP). The bending behavior thereby largely influences the size and position of wrinkles, which are one of the most common processing defects for continuously fiber-reinforced parts. Thus, a better understanding of the bending behavior of thermoplastic composite sheets as well as an appropriate testing method along with corresponding material models contribute to a wide-spread application of CFRPs in large scale production.

Glycosides are sugar derivatives in which the hydroxyl (-OH) group attached to carbon 1 is substituted by an alcoholic, phenolic or other groups which are used medicinally for their stimulant effects on the heart. There are a number of glycocides which occur in nature, mainly in plants. These compounds have found importance in therapeutic, nutritional and clinical use because they possess a variety of biological activities. Summarizing significant contemporary information on chemical, nutritional, biological and medicinal aspects of naturally occurring glycosides, this book presents a sequence of chapters that deal with chemical structures, occurrence, biosynthetic and biological activity. It contains: mono- and tri-terpenoid, limonoid, cyanogenic, steroidal, phenolic, cardiac active glycosides, as well as steroidal glycoalkaloids, aminoglycosidic antibiotics, saponins, and glycoproteins and glycolipids. The presence of glycosides and glycoconjugates in animals and micro-organisms is also included.

The series Advances in Polymer Science presents critical reviews of the present and future trends in polymer and biopolymer science. It covers all areas of research in polymer and biopolymer science including chemistry, physical chemistry, physics, material science. The thematic volumes are addressed to scientists, whether at universities or in industry, who wish to keep abreast of the important advances in the covered topics. Advances in Polymer Science enjoys a longstanding tradition and good reputation in its community. Each volume is dedicated to a current topic and each review critically surveys one aspect of that topic, to place it within the context of the volume. The volumes typically summarize the significant developments of the last 5 to 10 years and discuss them critically, presenting selected examples, explaining and illustrating the important principles and bringing together many important references of primary literature. On that basis, future research directions in the area can be discussed. Advances in Polymer Science volumes thus are important references for every polymer scientist, as well as for other scientists interested in polymer science as an introduction to a neighboring field or as a compilation of detailed information for the specialist. Review articles for the individual volumes are invited by the volume editors. Single contributions can be specially commissioned. Readership: Polymer scientists or scientists in related fields interested in polymer and biopolymer science, at universities or in industry, graduate students.

Tian Lu's dissertation describes major advances in ultrathin-layer chromatography (UTLC), liquid chromatography and surface-assisted laser desorption ionization (SALDI), and matrix-enhanced SALDI (ME-SALDI) mass spectrometry. Lu describes the fabrication of electrospun polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) UTLC plates using an in-situ crosslinking electrospinning technique. The author improved the efficiency of PVA plates greatly compared to the efficiency of silica HPTLC plates. Also highlighted in this thesis is an edge-plane based ordered-carbon surface that provides unique selectivity in liquid chromatography. Further developments include polar analytes, such as amino acids, nucleotides and nucleosides which can be well-retained and separated in the edge-plane ordered-carbon stationary phase. Also, the author studied and detected mass spectra of organic polymers as high as 900,000 Da, the highest molecular weight that has been studied by SALDI to date using the carbon nanofibrous substrate. This thesis has led to a number of publications in high-impact journals.

This volume reviews the latest trends in organic optoelectronic materials. Each comprehensive chapter allows graduate students and newcomers to the field to grasp the basics, whilst also ensuring that they have the most up-to-date overview of the latest research. Topics include: organic conductors and semiconductors; conducting polymers and conjugated polymer semiconductors, as well as their applications in organic field-effect-transistors; organic light-emitting diodes; and organic photovoltaics and transparent conducting electrodes. The molecular structures, synthesis methods, physicochemical and optoelectronic properties of the organic optoelectronic materials are also introduced and described in detail. The authors also elucidate the structures and working mechanisms of organic optoelectronic devices and outline fundamental scientific problems and future research directions. This volume is invaluable to all those interested in organic optoelectronic materials.

This book addresses a broad spectrum of areas in both hybrid materials and hierarchical composites, including recent development of processing technologies, structural designs, modern computer simulation techniques, and the relationships between the processing-structure-property-performance. Each topic is introduced at length with numerous  and detailed examples and over 150 illustrations.   In addition, the authors present a method of categorizing these materials, so that representative examples of all material classes are discussed.

By considering the solid state packing of linear chain wax components, this book aims at understanding three things: firstly, which modifications of molecular components are allowed for maintaining stable solid solutions; secondly, what happens when stability conditions are traversed and fractionation begins and thirdly, the structure of fractionated arrays. The co-compatibility of molecular ingredients is considered in terms of their shapes and relative sizes, following an approach originally proposed by Kitaigorodskii. As demonstrated profusely by the crystal structures of pure component types (e. g. alkanes, fatty alcohols, fatty acids, long chain esters, cholesteryl esters) and insertion of functional groups (e. g. chain branches, unsaturation, heteroatoms), characteristic molecular packing arrays provide important geometric information for understanding the co-packing of different molecules in mixtures. Single crystal and spectroscopic data from polydisperse arrays can then be evaluated to arrive at plausible structures of solid solutions and fractionated systems. The resultant structures are not only relevant to the understanding of so-called waxes but also include certain classes of polymers. The ramifications of this work extend into any solid state array of polymethylene chains, including lipid foodstuffs.

This book describes the physics of the second-generation quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), a fundamental method of analysis for soft matter at interfaces. From a device for measuring film thickness in vacuum, the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) has in the past two decades evolved into a versatile instrument for analyzing soft matter at solid/liquid and solid/gas interfaces that found applications in diverse fields including the life sciences, material science, polymer research and electrochemistry. As a consequence of this success, the QCM is now being used by scientists with a wide variety of backgrounds to study an impressive diversity of samples, with intricate data analysis methods being elaborated along the way. It is for these practitioners of the QCM that the book is written. It brings across basic principles behind the technique and the data analysis methods in sufficient detail to be educational and in a format that is accessible to anyone with an undergraduate level knowledge of any of the physical or natural sciences. These principles concern the analysis of acoustic shear waves and build on a number of fundamental physical concepts which many users of the technique do not usually come across. They have counterparts in optical spectroscopy, electrical engineering, quantum mechanics, rheology and mechanics, making this book a useful educational resource beyond the QCM itself. The main focus is the physics of QCM, but as the book describes the behavior of the QCM when exposed to films, droplets, polymer brushes, particles, vesicles, nanobubbles and stick-slip, it also offers insight into the behavior of soft matter at interfaces in a more general sense.

This thesis identifies the turning point in chain length, after which alkanes self-solvate into a folded structure instead of an extended stretched conformation. After this turning point, London dispersion forces rearrange isolated n-alkanes into a particular hairpin-structure, while for shorter chain lengths, a simple stretched conformation is energetically preferred. This thesis can locate the experimental turning point for the first time in an interaction-free manner from measurements of unbranched alkanes at low temperatures in supersonic jet expansions. It contains a detailed analysis of the vibrational Raman spectra of the chain molecules, which is supported by comprehensive quantum chemical simulations. In this way, the detailed balance between inter-chain attraction and conformational flexibility can be quantified. The investigations are complemented by measurements of perfluoroalkanes and similarities and differences between the compounds are discussed. Furthermore, Nils Luttschwager determines the stiffnesses (elastic moduli) of two of the most common industrial polymers: polyethylene and polytetrafluorethylene. He uses in this thesis a sophisticated extrapolation to calculate this value from quantities of their building blocks, showing that the single polymer molecules can be as stiff as a rod of steel.

This thesis offers novel insights into the time-dependent structural evolution of polymers under deformation. In-situ tensile experiments at high-brilliance synchrotron sources allowed to characterize the material with unrivaled resolution in time and space. The strain-induced crystallization in natural rubber was studied by wide-angle X-ray diffraction. Special emphasis was put on the establishment of new structure-property relationships to give a more in-depth understanding of the mechanical performance of rubber parts, e.g. in tear fatigue loading. To this end, the kinetics of strain-induced crystallization were investigated, subjecting the material to high strain rates. The local structure around a crack tip was observed by scanning wide-angle X-ray diffraction. Ultra-small angle X-ray scattering served to study filled elastomers under deformation, from specially prepared model filler systems to industrially relevant carbon black filled rubbers. Other methods include electron microscopy coupled with in-situ tensile testing and optical dilatometry to examine cavitation in rubbers. The underlying theory as well as a literature review are covered by an extensive introductory chapter, followed by a description of the experimental techniques. The results are presented in more detail than in the original journal publications.

This book offers a valuable reference source to graduate and post graduate students, engineering students, research scholars polymer engineers from industry. The book provides the reader with current developments of theoretical models describing the thermodynamics polyelectrolytes as well as experimental findings. A particular emphasis is put on the rheological description of polyelectrolyte solutions and hydrogels.

This multi-authored book provides a comprehensive overview of the latest developments in porous CO2 capture materials, including ionic liquid-derived carbonaceous adsorbents, porous carbons, metal-organic frameworks, porous aromatic frameworks, micro porous organic polymers. It also reviews the sorption techniques such as cyclic uptake and desorption reactions and membrane separations. In each category, the design and fabrication, the comprehensive characterization, the evaluation of CO2 sorption/separation and the sorption/degradation mechanism are highlighted. In addition, the advantages and remaining challenges as well as future perspectives for each porous material are covered. This book is aimed at scientists and graduate students in such fields as separation, carbon, polymer, chemistry, material science and technology, who will use and appreciate this information source in their research. Other specialists may consult specific chapters to find the latest, authoritative reviews. Dr. An-Hui Lu is a Professor at the State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical, Environmental and Biological Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, China. Dr. Sheng Dai is a Corporate Fellow and Group Leader in the Chemical Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Tennessee, USA.

Polyelectrolyte Complexes for Tailoring of Wood Fibre Surfaces. Polyelectrolyte Complexes in Flocculation Applications. Spontaneous Assembly and Induced Aggregation of Food Proteins. Polyelectrolyte Complexes of DNA and Polycations as Gene Delivery Vectors. Sizing, Shaping and Pharmaceutical Applications of Polyelectrolyte Complex Nanoparticles.

In this thesis, the author introduces various bio-inspired smart nanochannel systems. A strategy for design and preparation of novel artificial responsive symmetric/asymmetric single nanochannel systems under various symmetric/asymmetric stimuli is presented for the first time. The author’s research work utilizes ion track etching polymer nanochannels with different shapes as examples to demonstrate the feasibility of the design strategy for building novel artificial functional nanochannels using various symmetric/asymmetric physicochemical modifications. The development of these nanochannels and their potential applications is a burgeoning new area of research, and a number of exciting breakthroughs may be anticipated in the near future from the concepts and results reported in this thesis. Research into artificial functional nanochannels continues to drive new developments of various real-world applications, such as biosensors, energy conversion systems and nanofluidic devices. The work in this thesis has led to more than 15 publications in high-profile journals.

This book delivers a deep insight into thermal polymer degradation features and put a particular emphasis on blends, composites and nanocomposites. It examines the thermal stability and the mechanism of degrading for every class of polymer substances and studies the effect on reinforcement to all classes. The book further explores the thermal stability when nano particles are added and summarizes the latest studies and application relevant results. This book offers a valuable reference source to graduate and post graduate students, engineering students, research scholars and polymer engineers from industry.

Advances in Polymer Science enjoys a longstanding tradition and good reputation in its community. Each volume is dedicated to a current topic, and each review critically surveys one aspect of that topic, to place it within the context of the volume. The volumes typically summarize the significant developments of the last 5 to 10 years and discuss them critically, presenting selected examples, explaining and illustrating the important principles, and bringing together many important references of primary literature. On that basis, future research directions in the area can be discussed. Advances in Polymer Science volumes thus are important references for every polymer scientist, as well as for other scientists interested in polymer science - as an introduction to a neighboring field, or as a compilation of detailed information for the specialist.

In biological systems, molecules hierarchically form ordered assemblies and macroscopic substances, as exemplified by the assembly of proteins. The development of such systems using oligomeric macromolecules obtained by organic synthesis can provide insights into biological phenomena and will lead to the creation of new materials. In this regard, synthetic double helix molecules are attractive subjects of study because they have an important structural motif that appears widely in nature and can exhibit dynamic structural change. This thesis describes an unprecedented bottom-up approach using synthetic ethynylhelicene oligomers, which form dynamic double helices in organic media. Oligomer synthesis, homo- and hetero-double helix formation, and higher assembly formation due to intercomplex interactions are documented. The hierarchical assembly formation is a cogent reminder of the assembly of biological proteins that create living creatures. Also notable here is the demonstration of a methodology of providing diverse hetero-double helices and their higher assemblies by changing the combination of oligomers, which can be another advantage of this synthetic system.

Making Flory-Huggins Practical: Thermodynamics of Polymer-Containing Mixtures, by B. A. Wolf
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Aqueous Solutions of Polyelectrolytes: Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium and Some Related Properties, by G. Maurer, S. Lammertz, and L. Ninni Sch fer
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Gas-Polymer Interactions: Key Thermodynamic Data and Thermophysical Properties, by J.-P. E. Grolier, and S. A.E. Boyer
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Interfacial Tension in Binary Polymer Blends and the Effects of Copolymers as Emulsifying Agents, by S. H. Anastasiadis
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Theory of Random Copolymer Fractionation in Columns, by Sabine Enders
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Computer Simulations and Coarse-Grained Molecular Models Predicting the Equation of State of Polymer Solutions, by K. Binder, B. Mognetti, W. Paul, P. Virnau, and L. Yelash
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Modeling of Polymer Phase Equilibria Using Equations of State, by G. Sadowski

Synergetics is the quantitative study of multicomponent systems that exhibit nonlinear dynamics and cooperativity. This book specifically considers basic models of the nonlinear dynamics of molecular systems and discusses relevant applications in biological physics and the polymer sciences. Emphasis is placed on specific solutions to the dynamical equations that correspond to the coherent formation of spatial-temporal structures, such as solitons, kinks and breathers, in particular. The emergence of these patterns in molecular structures provides a variety of information on their structural properties and plays a significant part in energy transfer processes, topological defects, dislocations, and related structure transitions. Real media, in which solitons take the form of solitary waves, are also considered. In this context, the formation of nonlinear waves in a continuous medium described by nonlinear equations is associated with spontaneous breaking of the local symmetry of the homogeneous system, which produces a range of interesting phenomena. A particular feature of this text is its combination of analytic and computational strategies to tackle difficult nonlinear problems at the molecular level of matter.

Advances in Polymer Science enjoys a longstanding tradition and good reputation in its community. Each volume is dedicated to a current topic, and each review critically surveys one aspect of that topic, to place it within the context of the volume. The volumes typically summarize the significant developments of the last 5 to 10 years and discuss them critically, presenting selected examples, explaining and illustrating the important principles, and bringing together many important references of primary literature. On that basis, future research directions in the area can be discussed. Advances in Polymer Science volumes thus are important references for every polymer scientist, as well as for other scientists interested in polymer science - as an introduction to a neighboring field, or as a compilation of detailed information for the specialist.