112 Book reviews

use of starch derivatives, including both polymeric materialsas builders and small surfactant molecules in the detergentindustry. The uses of superabsorbent polymers, formed bycrosslinking polyelectrolytes, in nappies, as controlled releaseagents or as sealing agents are discussed by Buchholz andBurgert.

The book provides a most useful introduction to theproperties and uses of water soluble polymers.

D.I. Robb

Antioxidative stabilization of polymersYu. A. Shlyapnikov, S. G. Kiryushkin and A. P. MarÏin.Taylor & Francis, London, 1996.pp. vii] 243, price, £75.00.ISBN 0-7484-0577-1

The senior author of this book (Yu. A. Shlyapnikov) hasestablished an international reputation for application ofkinetic techniques to polymer degradation and of the under-standing of antioxidant action in polymers. It was with antici-pation and a certain amount of apprehension, because of thefearsome nature of some of the mathematics used by thisauthor in his published papers, that I approached this review.I was pleasantly surprised to Ðnd that the kinetics did notunduly dominate and that the conclusions were presented in away that do not deter the physical chemist or the more mathe-matically minded polymer technologist.

The Ðrst three chapters are concerned with the uninhibitedoxidation of polymers. Chapter 1 deals extensively with thesolubility and di†usion of antioxidants in polymers. Chapters2 and 3 discuss the e†ects of temperature with emphasis uponinitiation processes. Chapter 4, the most organic chemistry-orientated of all the chapters, classiÐes antioxidants by whereand how they interfere with the peroxidation chain reaction ; itis also the least satisfactory. Chapter 5 deals with the kineticsof inhibited polymer oxidation and the concepts of “weakÏ and“strongÏ antioxidants and “critical antioxidant concentrationÏ Èthe speciality of the Russian school. Chapter 6 returns to theproblems of oxygen and antioxidant di†usion in polymers,with some overlap with Chapter 1. Chapter 7 attempts to setup general kinetic equations to predict the service life of poly-meric materials by extrapolation from high temperatures andhigh oxygen pressures. The Ðnal chapter brieÑy describes theexperimental techniques used in the previous chapters.

The book is successful È as far as it goes È but, in thereviewerÏs opinion, this is not far enough. Of the 428 refer-ences only 62 (14.5%) are post-1980 and, of these, 45 refer toRussian work (more than half of which are publications of theauthors). There are, thus, only 17 references to work bywestern authors in a period when there has been a proliÐcproduction of papers and books on polymer degradation andstabilization. This is reÑected in a quite inadequate treatmentof antioxidant chemistry in Chapter 4. Omission of the dis-cussion of recent work published in European and US jour-nals would lead the reader to conclude that research intoantioxidants in western countries ceased after 1980. Althoughnot stated, it appears that the book was probably originallypublished in Russian in the 1980s and the reference to only

one paper in the 1990s (by the authors) was added at trans-lation.

For the reason given, the price quoted must inhibit all butthe dedicated oxidation kineticist from purchasing this book.The more affluent university libraries may be able to justifyhaving it on their reference shelves.

G. Scott

ThermoplasticsDirectory and DatabookDavid BashfordChapman and Hall, London, 1997.pp. viii] 493, price, UK£95.00.ISBN 0-412-73350-1

This Directory and Databook is a massive compendium ofinformation : it aids the processes of sourcing and selectingappropriate thermoplastic polymers. It is in four parts : briefdescriptions of seventeen generic thermoplastics (65 polymersin all), listings of suppliers, data and trade name index.Emphasis has been placed on engineering thermoplastics, anddata on commodity plastics is limited. As the book relieslargely on manufacturersÏ data sheets, the information cannever be up to date at the time of printing but it does showwhom to contact. The property data, also taken from datasheets, can confuse because of the co-use of ISO, ASTM andDIN methods. Single point data are of little use for trueengineering applications and multipoint data should besought from material manufacturersÏ technical experts. Thisdatabook can only be a primary guide or Ðrst step for the userbut would be a useful addition to any reference library.

W. J. Allwood

in polymer systemsNano-structuresMacromolecular symposia 106Edited by Hartwig Ho� cker.Hu� thig & Wepf Verlag, Zug. 1996.pp. 439, price US$130.00, DM176.00, SFr145.00, o� S1255.00.ISBN 3-85739-303-3

A rapidly developing Ðeld in polymer science is that of self-assembling structures and the design and control of polymerÈpolymer interactions to generate organization on the1È100 nm scale. This area of “nanostructuresÏ is actively beingpursued both in former Eastern-block countries as well as inthe west. This volume describes a conference (which tookplace on a comfortable four-deck river cruise ship travellingbetween St. Petersburg and Moscow in May 1995) including42 papers, of which 35 are presented as full papers and theremainder are included as extended abstracts. Some of the(possibly more challenging and interesting) lectures presentedby people from the west are only included as extendedabstracts.

The Ðrst six papers deal with novel approaches in the genera-tion of organization in polymer systems. The next block often papers looks at interactions between polymer blends and

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Book reviews 113

mixtures in a more conventional type system, followed by afurther group of papers on the way in which liquid crystallinepolymers and other systems may be organized when inter-acting with substrates. These papers tend to be concernedwith physical measurement of the nature of these systemsrather than the usual emphasis on synthesis and conceptualorganization, and cover the whole spread of possible types oforganization in interactions which might be envisaged withinpolymer systems, presenting an interesting view of the currentstate of understanding in nanostructures.

As a collection of papers, the life of this publication is likelyto be limited. However, it will be of interest to all thosecurrent PhD students attempting to understand the complex-ities of interactions at a polymeric level both in the solid andsolution phase. It is an interesting collection of papers, but isnot necessarily a comprehensive view of the topic.

A.R. Pethrick

Metal-containing polymeric materialsEdited by C. U. Pittman, Jr., C. E. Carraher, Jr., M. Zelldin,J. E. Sheats and B. M. CulbertsonPlenum Press, New York, 1996.pp. x] 518, price, US$125.00.ISBN 0-306-45295-2

This is a selection of the papers presented at the Sixth Interna-tional Symposium on Metal-Containing Polymeric Materialsorganized within the ACS Fall Meeting held in 1994, originat-ing from all corners of the world. The subject is developingrapidly, spurred on by the search for new optoelectronicmaterials, catalysts, polyelectrolytes and preceramics, and bythe need to understand further the roles that metals play inbiological systems. The Ðrst chapter presents an editorialoverview of the subject : it makes ideal reading for the non-specialist. It is followed by six sections, the Ðrst two of whichare devoted to synthesis, structural characterization andmodiÐcation of new polymeric systems ; later sections dealwith the characterization of properties, and the special con-siderations that apply to biological systems.

The Ðrst section, “Synthesis and characterisation of newsystemsÏ is an excellent introduction to ring-opening poly-merization of strained metallocenophanes ; in 1994 this excit-ing work, leading to the incorporation of iron in a variety ofpolymeric backbones, was entirely new. The later chapters inthis section describe the incorporation of other metals,through complexation or as clusters, in a range of conven-tional carbon-chain polymeric structures. The papers of thenext section are concerned with the methods of incorporatingmetals in silicon-backbone polymers, and in cages and net-works. Syntheses of metal-containing siloxanes, polysilanesand polycarbosilanes are all represented, along withceramicization studies and polymer-supported catalysts. Inthe concluding sections, all the properties expected of modernmaterials are given consideration, from the electrical, magneticand photonic properties through to ion-exchange, ion-bindingand electrolytic properties È there is even a paper on the massspectrometry of metal-containing polymers.

In so far as it is possible to identify a natural order of pres-entation, it has been achieved È a task by no means easy when

presenting conference papers. Four previous conferencesunder the same banner have led to publications : together withthis volume they form a basis for following a developingsubject area. Several papers here will maintain their signiÐ-cance and be good research reading in years to come.

While this book would be a useful reference to have to handwithin any laboratory concerned with polymers and theirapplications, its price means that it is most likely to be pur-chased by libraries rather than by individuals.

R. G. Jones

Statistical mechanics deformation ultrasonic spectroscopyAdvances in polymer science 125A. Abe et al.SpringerÈVerlag, Berlin, 1996.pp. 197, price, DM184.00.ISBN 3-540-60483-9

This volume contains three articles concerned with di†erentbut related topics.

The Ðrst chapter, on “Statistical mechanics of transport phe-nomena ; polymeric liquid mixturesÏ, is written by Curtiss andBird. For the reader to obtain full beneÐt they should be fam-iliar with Dynamics of polymeric liquids by Bird, Armstrong,Hassager and Curtiss : it opens with a summary of the kinetictheories of Ñexible macromolecules based on bead springmodels of arbitrary connectivity. The Ðrst part summarizesthe more detailed developments of the fundamentals of thesubject. The authors have addressed, very concisely, manyimportant assumptions made in development of the theory,and highlighted areas of potential concern with its validationin relation to real systems, presenting a look at the currentstate of theoretical development from the statistical mechani-cal point of view of the transport properties of polymericmaterials. The chapter concludes with suggestions for furtherresearch and identiÐes clearly the issues in relation to limi-tations imposed on the theoretical development which artiÐ-cially constrain the validity of the model used for real systems.Recognition of the importance of optical electrical phenomenain providing information on transport phenomena, and theneed for additional theoretical development in this area, is tobe applauded.

The second chapter “Kinetics and deformation of relaxationin highly oriented polymersÏ by Bronnikov, Vettegren andFrankel looks at the kinetics of deformation in orientatedmaterials, notably polyimide type structures, as a mixture oftheory and modelling of experimental data to validate theassumptions made in the theory. This is a useful discussion ofan area which is infrequently visited in terms of theoreticalanalysis.

The Ðnal chapter, on ultrasonic spectroscopy of polymericmaterials, by Matsushige, Hiramatsu and Okabe, describesthe development of a novel ultrasonic spectrometer withpiezoelectric polymeric transducers, using fast Fourier trans-form analysis to study polymeric materials. It concentrates ondetailed description of equipment and the appropriate dataanalysis required for the application of this technique, in thecharacterization of solid polymers, phase transition pheno-

POLYMER INTERNATIONAL VOL. 44, NO. 1, 1997