POLYMER CHEMISTRY: An Introduction, 3rd Edition,

Oxford University Press

by

Malcolm P. Stevens, Ph.D.

Professor of Chemistry

University of Hartford

The third edition of my polymer text, Polymer Chemistry: An Introduction, was published in 1998 by Oxford University Press. A solutions manual for end-of-chapter review exercises is also available. Some important developments in polymer chemistry, which have evolved since the second edition was published in 1990, are included in the new edition. Among them are the following:

Contents list

Metallocene catalysts (also called "single-site" catalysts) for olefin polymerization, which are already bringing new products to the marketplace.

Living free radical polymerization, which has joined anionic and cationic living polymerization as a route to block copolymers and low-polydispersity homopolymers.

Dendritic polymers (dendrimers), now being produced commercially, including convergent and divergent methods of synthesis, and the related hyperbranched polymers.

New mass spectrometric methods of determining molecular weights and molecular weight distribution, in particular MALDI-MS (matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry).

Microbial polyesters, now being used in the manufacture of compostable containers.

Synthesis of high-molecular-weight polyferrocenes by thermal ring-opening polymerization of bridged ferrocenes (ferrocenophanes), pioneered by Ian Manners and coworkers at the University of Toronto.

New ring-opening polymerization techniques applied to cyclic oligomers for synthesizing polycarbonates and other engineering polymers.

Acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) polymerization, which complements ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP).

Polymer recycling, including the widely used plastic container coding system.

Polymers exhibiting nonlinear optical properties, which are being developed for polymeric photonics devices.

Atomic force microscopy for characterizing polymer surfaces.

New polymer architectures, including polyrotaxanes, polycatenanes, and supramolecular assemblies.

The third edition is approximately the same length as the second. The only significant organizational change is that heterocyclic polymers, which were divided between Chapters 13 and 16 in the second edition, are now treated together in a separate chapter.

I welcome comments from students, faculty members, and other who use the book. In the past I have received valuable feedback from a number of individuals who pointed out errors that escaped the proofreading, or who offered suggestions for improving the text. I can be reached conveniently at my e-mail address (stevens@mail.hartford.edu).

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