A Handbook Of Polymer Chemistry

Education in polymer science has not kept pace. By far the majority of colleges and universities in the world have no courses in polymer science, no staff member conducting research in this area, any one cursory mention of polymers in other courses. There are, needles to say, many exceptions, ranging from the isolated effort of a single staff member to such centres for polymer research. Fortunately, this scarcity of education in polymer science is slowly diminishing, but it is still evident in many areas. What is most unfortunate is that it appears to exist, not because of a lack of interest. Not only has the number by universities and specialized books on polymer increased at a tremendous rate in recent years, but a number of valuable compilations has appeared. One result of the appearance of many specialized books and encyclopaedias is that it is no longer necessary for a text book to cite the original literature in detail; indeed, it would be impossible to do so today. We hope that the many readers whose kind comments on this book will continue to find this extremely useful.