This volume had its birth from a symposium organized by the Macromolecular Secretariat of the American Chemical Society in Atlanta, GA, 1991. Since Macromolecular SeCretariat has five participating divisions-Polymer Chemistry; Polymer Materials: Science and Engineering Division; Colloid and Surface Chemistry Division; Cellulose, Paper and Textile Division; and Rubber Division-the speakers were invited from these disciplinaries and they are truly interdisciplinary in multidisciplinary areas. A number of papers are from the presentations at this symposium. However, some papers were subsequently invited to be sent in. Therefore, many papers have cited references with dates as late as this current year. This book emphasizes applications, and some of the papers were finished in 1993. Therefore, it is timely for scientists and engineers interested in this area of progress. For scientists and engineers who are not familiar with this field, since the development is still youthful, this volume will cover some new frontiers, such as electronics, medical devices, fossil fuels, asphaltics, geochemistry, and environmental engineering. With that in mind, this book can be very useful as a reference. We do include a number of review papers . in this volume. In summary, this book contains sixteen chapters with twenty-eight authors from various organizations and specialties."