Block Copolymers: Synthetic Strategies, Physical Properties, and Applications

Polymers may be classified as either homopolymers, consisting of one single repeating unit, or copolymers, consisting of two or more distinct repeating units. Block copolymers contain long contiguous blocks of two or more repeating units in the same polymer chain. Covering one of the hottest topics in polymer chemistry, Block Copolymers provides a coherent overview of the synthetic routes, physical properties, and applications of block copolymers. This pioneering text provides not only a guideline for developing synthetic strategies for creating block copolymers with defined characteristics, but also a key to the relationship between the physical properties of block copolymers and the structure and dynamics of materials. Covering features of the chemistry and physics of block copolymers that are not found in comparable texts, Block Copolymers illustrates the structure-activity relationship of block copolymers and offers suggestions for the design of specific applications. Divided into five sections–Block Copolymers includes chapters on:

• Block Copolymers by Chemical Modification of Precursor Polymers
• Nonlinear Block Copolymers
• Adsorption of Block Copolymers at Solid-Liquid Interfaces
• Theory of Block Copolymer Segregation
• Phase Transformation Kinetics
• Block Copolymer Morphology
• Block Copolymer Dynamics

Polymer chemists, physicists, chemical engineers, and materials scientists, as well as graduate students in polymer science, will find Block Copolymers to be an invaluable text.