Polymer Gels and Networks

400 pages, Illustrated  ISBN 0824706692      £120.00

This book presents an in-depth look at the properties, thermodynamic formation, structure, latest trends, and scientific application of bio- and synthetic polymer gels. It describes the use of hydrogels as superabsorbents, carriers for controlled drug release, membranes with regulated permeability, sensor devices, and artificial muscles. It will be of value to organic, medicinal, physical, surface, and colloid chemists and biochemists; chemical, materials, biomedical, polymer, fibers, and coatings engineers and bioengineers; pharmaceutical scientists; and advanced undergraduates and graduate students in these disciplines.

Contents

Process and formation gels: casacade formalism applied to the network formation in organic/inorganic hybrid gel films; thermoreversible and irreversible physical gels from biopolymers; reversable (physical) gelation in the solutions of associating polyelectrolytes; association in polyelectrolyte-catanionic vesicle systems - from phase behaviour to microstructure; metal nanoparticle formation in polyelectrolyte gels with regular microstructures.

Structure and behaviours of gels: structure and properties of polyampholyte gels; polyelectrolyte/ionomer behaviour of polymer gels; electrical behaviours and mechanical responses of polyelectrolyte gels; synchrotron X-ray study on nanostructures of polyelectrolyte gel/surfactant complexes; structural and dynamic behaviour of polymer gels as eludicated by NMR spectroscopy; electric and magnetic field sensitive smart polymer gels; rhythmically pulsating gels based on chemomechanical feedback instability.