Between June 6-10, 1988, the Third Chemical Congress of North America was held at the Toronto Convention Center. At this rare gathering, fifteen thousand scientists attended various symposia. In one of the symposia, Professor Pierre-Gilles de Gennes of College de France was honored as the 1988 recipient of the Amer ican Chemical Society Polymer Chemistry Award, sponsored by Mobil Chemical Corporation. For Professor de Gennes, this international setting could not be more fitting. For years, he has been a friend and a lecturer to the world scientific community. Thus, for this special occasion, his friends came to recount many of his achievements or report new research findings mostly derived from his theories or stimulated by his thoughts. In this volume of Proceedings, titled New Trends in Physics and Physical Chemistry of Polymers, we are glad to present the revised papers for the Symposium and some contributed after the Symposium. In addition, we intend to include most of the lively discussions that took plaGe during the conference. This volume contains a total of thirty-six papers divided into six parts, primarily according to the nature of the subject matter: • Adsorption of Colloids and Polymers. • Adhesion, Fractal and Wetting of Polymers. • Dynamics and Characterization of Polymer Solutions. • Diffusion and Interdiffusion of Polymers. • Entanglement and Reptation of Polymer Melts and Networks. • Phase Transitions and Gel Electrophoresis.

Between June 6-10, 1988, the Third Chemical Congress of North America was held at the Toronto Convention Center. At this rare gathering, fifteen thousand scientists attended various symposia. In one of the symposia, Professor Pierre-Gilles de Gennes of College de France was honored as the 1988 recipient of the Amer ican Chemical Society Polymer Chemistry Award, sponsored by Mobil Chemical Corporation. For Professor de Gennes, this international setting could not be more fitting. For years, he has been a friend and a lecturer to the world scientific community. Thus, for this special occasion, his friends came to recount many of his achievements or report new research findings mostly derived from his theories or stimulated by his thoughts. In this volume of Proceedings, titled New Trends in Physics and Physical Chemistry of Polymers, we are glad to present the revised papers for the Symposium and some contributed after the Symposium. In addition, we intend to include most of the lively discussions that took plaGe during the conference. This volume contains a total of thirty-six papers divided into six parts, primarily according to the nature of the subject matter: • Adsorption of Colloids and Polymers. • Adhesion, Fractal and Wetting of Polymers. • Dynamics and Characterization of Polymer Solutions. • Diffusion and Interdiffusion of Polymers. • Entanglement and Reptation of Polymer Melts and Networks. • Phase Transitions and Gel Electrophoresis.

For several years, I have been responsible for organizing and teaching in the fall a short course on "Fundamentals of Adhesion: Theory, Practice, and Applications" at the State University of New York at New Paltz. Every spring I would try to assemble the most pertinent subjects and line up several capable lecturers for the course. However, there has always been one thing missing-an authoritative book that covers most aspects of adhesion and adhesive bonding. Such a book would be used by the participants as a main reference throughout the course and kept as a sourcebook after the course had been completed. On the other hand, this book could not be one of those "All you want to know about" volumes, simply because adhesion is an interdisciplinary and ever-growing field. For the same reason, it would be very difficult for a single individual, especially me, to undertake the task of writing such a book. Thus, I relied on the principle that one leaves the truly monumental jobs to experts, and I finally succeeded in asking several leading scientists in the field of adhesion to write separate chapters for this collection. Some chapters emphasize theoretical concepts and others experimental techniques. In the humble beginning, we planned to include only twelve chapters. However, we soon realized that such a plan would leave too much ground uncovered, and we resolved to increase the coverage. After the book had evolved into thirty chapters, we started to feel that perhaps our mission had been accomplished.

The first part of this book looks at the consequence of chemical and topological defects existing on real surfaces, which explain the wettability of super hydrophilc and super hydrophobic surfaces. There follows an in-depth analysis of the acido-basicity of surfaces with, as an illustration, different wettability experiments on real materials. The next chapter deals with various techniques enabling the measurement of acido basicity of the surfaces including IR and XPS technics. The last part of the book presents an electrochemical point of view which explains the surface charges of the oxide at contact with water or other electrolyte solutions in the frame of Bronsted acido-basicity concept. Various consequences are deduced from such analyses illustrated by original measurement of the point of zero charge or by understanding the basic principles of the electrowetting experiments.

Written by expert contributors from the academic and industrial sectors, this book presents traditional and modern approaches to polymer characterization and analysis. The emphasis is on pragmatics, problem solving and property determination; real-world applications provide a context for key concepts. The characterizations focus on organic polymer and polymer product microstructure and composition. - Approaches molecular characterization and analysis of polymers from the viewpoint of problem-solving and polymer property characterization, rather than from a technique championing approach - Focuses on providing a means to ascertaining the optimum approach or technique(s) to solve a problem/measure a property, and thereby develop an analytical competence in the molecular characterization and analysis of real-world polymer products - Provides background on polymer chemistry and microstructure, discussions of polymer chain, morphology, degradation, and product failure and additive analysis, and considers the supporting roles of modeling and high-throughput analysis

Polymer chemistry and technology form one of the major areas of molecular and materials science. This field impinges on nearly every aspect of modern life, from electronics technology, to medicine, to the wide range of fibers, films, elastomers, and structural materials on which everyone depends. Although most of these polymers are organic materials, attention is being focused increasingly toward polymers that contain inorganic elements as well as organic components. The goal of Inorganic Polymers is to provide a broad overview of inorganic polymers in a way that will be useful to both the uninitiated and those already working in this field. There are numerous reasons for being interested in inorganic polymers. One is the simple need to know how structure affects the properties of a polymer, particularly outside the well-plowed area of organic materials. Another is the bridge that inorganic polymers provide between polymer science and ceramics. More and more chemistry is being used in the preparation of ceramics of carefully controlled structure, and inorganic polymers are increasingly important precursor materials in such approaches. This new edition begins with a brief introductory chapter. That is followed with a discussion of the characteristics and characterization of polymers, with examples taken from the field. Other chapters in the book detail the synthesis, reaction chemistry, molecular structure, and uses of polyphosphazenes, polysiloxanes, and polysilanes. The coverage in the second edition has been updated and expanded significantly to cover advances and interesting trends since the first edition appeared. Three new chapters have been added, focusing on ferrocene-based polymers, other phosphorous-containing polymers, and boron-containing polymers; inorganic-organic hybrid composites; and preceramic inorganic polymers.