A broad examination of the physical properties of solutions

Polymer Solutions: An Introduction to Physical Properties offers a fresh, inclusive approach to teaching the fundamentals of physical polymer science. Students, instructors, and professionals in polymer chemistry, analytical chemistry, organic chemistry, engineering, materials, and textiles will find Iwao Teraoka’s text at once accessible and highly detailed in its treatment of the properties of polymers in the solution phase.

Teraoka’s purpose in writing Polymer Solutions is twofold: to familiarize the advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate student with basic concepts, theories, models, and experimental techniques for polymer solutions; and to provide a reference for researchers working in the area of polymer solutions as well as those in charge of chromatographic characterization of polymers. The author’s incorporation of recent advances in the instrumentation of size-exclusion chromatography, the method by which polymers are analyzed, renders the text particularly topical.

Subjects discussed include:

• Real, ideal, Gaussian, semirigid, and branched polymer chains
• Polymer solutions and thermodynamics
• Static light scattering of a polymer solution
• Dynamic light scattering and diffusion of polymers
• Dynamics of dilute and semidilute polymer solutions

Study questions at the end of each chapter not only provide students with the opportunity to test their understanding, but also introduce topics relevant to polymer solutions not included in the main text. With over 250 geometrical model diagrams, Polymer Solutions is a necessary reference for students and for scientists pursuing a broader understanding of polymers.

Written to introduce readers to molecular descriptions of thermodynamics, chemical systems, and biomolecules, Statistical Thermodynamics discusses the aspects of statistical thermodynamics of most use and interest to chemistry students. Topics include: probability; energy and interactions; statistical mechanics; harmonic oscillators; ideal gas; imperfect gas; heat capacities of gas; rubber elasticity; conformation of polymers; surface adsorption; law of mass action; Ising model; and more. Rich with illustrations and tables to illuminate rather difficult concepts, the text equips students with the ability to apply the method to their own systems.