The Physics of Polymers: Concepts for Understanding Their Structures and Behavior (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9783642064494)

The Physics of Polymers presents the elements of this important segment of material science, focusing on concepts above experimental techniques and theoretical methods. Written for graduate students of physics, material science and chemical engineering and for researchers working with polymers in academia and industry, the book introduces and discusses the basic phenomena which lead to the peculiar physical properties of polymeric systems. The revised and expanded Third Edition includes a new chapter dealing with conjugated polymers, explaining the physical basis of the characteristic electro-optic response, and the spectacular electrical conduction properties of conjugated polymers created by doping. Polyelectrolyte solutions with their special properties caused by Coulomb forces are newly treated, in chapters dealing with ordering phenomena, the unusually high viscosity and the superswelling of gels. The chapter on melt crystallization has been rewritten to present new findings, and formulate and interpret the deduced laws.