BOOK REVIEWS
Modification of Polymers, Charles E. Carraher, Jr., and Minoru
Tsuda, American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., 1980, 500
pp. Price: $39.50
This book is based on a symposium held at the ACS Chemical Congress in
Hawaii in April 1979. The ACS Symposium Series provides a valuable function in providing rapid publication of papers so that they may be utilized by
those active in the field. An introduction by the editors puts the symposium
in perspective with regard to problems and opportunities. The 32 papers are
quite varied and include reaction systems involving such polymers as poly(vinyl alcohol), poly(viny1 chloride), polyacrylamide, poly( 1,2-polybutadiene),
poly(N-vinyl carbazole), poly(methy1 methacrylate), polyethylene, polysaccharides, polyesters, and others. Methods of modification include crosslinking,
oxidation reactions, metal ion and filler incorporation, photolysis, radiation
grafting, plasma treatment, direct chemical reaction, and other approaches.
The editors are to be commended for putting such a worthwhile symposium
together .
Eli Pearce
Polytechnic Institute of New York
333 Jay St.
Brooklyn, New York 11201
Contemporary Polymer Chemistry, H. R. Allcock and F. W. Lampe,
Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1981, 599 pp.
“Contemporary Polymer Chemistry” is organized into the following four
parts: synthesis and reactions of polymers (part l), thermodynamics and
kinetics of polymerization (part 2), physical characterization of polymers (part
3), fabrication, testing, and uses of polymers (part 4).
In the first part, after the presentation of the scope of polymer chemistry,
the authors discuss condensation and other step-type polymerizations; free
radical polymerization; ionic and coordination polymerization; photolytic,
radiation, and electrolytic polymerization; polymerization of cyclic organic
compounds, inorganic polymers, biological polymers, and their reactions; reactions of synthetic polymers.
The second part develops the polymerization and depolymerization equilibria, kinetics of condensation polymerization, kinetics of free radical polymerization, kinetics of ionic polymerization.
Journal of Polymer Science: Polymer Letters Edition, Vol. 19, 275-280 (1981)
2 76
POLYMER LETTERS EDITION
The characterization methods such as determination of absolute molecular
weights, secondary methods for molecular weight determination, thermodynamics of solutions of high polymers, morphology, glass transitions, and polymer crystallinity, conformational analysis of polymers, x-ray diffraction by
polymers constitute the subject of the third part.
In the last part, the fabrication of polymers (films, fibers, shaped objects,
reinforced polymers, surface coatings, etc.), the testing of polymers (mechanical tests, thermal properties, electrical tests, environmental stability), and the
biomedical applications of synthetic polymers is described.
The book also has three useful appendices: polymer nomenclature, properties and uses of selected polymers, references to topics not discussed in this
book. It is a very good introduction to polymer chemistry for students of
chemistry, physics, chemical engineering, materials science, biophysics, and
biochemistry and for all who have an interest in the chemistry of polymers.
D. Feldman
Concordia University
Montreal, Canada
Chemical Microstructure of Polymer Chains, Jack L. Koenig, Wiley,
New York, 1980, 414 pp.
This text is based on a course given by the author, an experienced teacher
and well-known investigator who has made many valuable contributions to
polymer science, particularly to the vibrational spectroscopy of macromolecular materials. It describes the chief methods for the determination of the
microstructure of polymers, mainly of the vinyl and diene type, and discusses
their application in detail. The term “microstructure” is employed in the
usual sense as referring to the detailed local structure (expanded to include
conformation) as distinguished from questions of molecular weight and chain
dimensions, which might be called “macrostructure.” The methods emphasized are infrared, Raman, NMR, ultraviolet, and visible spectroscopy, together
with (much more briefly) chemical methods, pyrolysis-gas chromatography,
mass spectroscopy, and ESCA. A correct balance of treatment has been
achieved.
Following a brief introductory chapter describing the significance of the
material to be discussed, and largely expressed through flow diagrams, come
two chapters dealing with probability theory applied to polymerization and
the observation of polymer chain structure, including several models for copolymerization. Copolymerizations of more than two monomers as well as
several special cases are discussed in Chapter 4. Much of the discussion is
divorced from any reference to experimental reality, which tends to make it