Essentials of Polymer Science and Engineering

by Paul C. Painter, Michael M. Coleman

T his book is at once an introduction to polymers and an imaginative invitation to the field of polymer science and engineering as a whole, including plastics and plastics processing. Created by two of the best-known scientists in America, the text explains and helps students as well as professionals appreciate all major topics in polymer chemistry and polymerization synthesis and kinetics, applications of probability theory, structure and morphology, thermal and solution properties, mechanical properties, biological properties and plastics processing methods. Essentials of Polymer Science and Engineering, designed to supercede many standard texts (including the authors'), is unique in a number of ways. Special attention has been paid to explaining fundamentals and providing high-level visuals. In addition, the text is replete with engaging profiles of polymer chemists and their discoveries. The book explains the science of polymer engineering, and at the same time, tells the story of the field from its beginnings to the present, indicating when and how polymer discoveries have played a role in history and society. The book comes well equipped with study questions and problems and is suitable for a one- or two-semester course for chemistry students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The authors will have availible an Instructors workbook, which includes a Power Point Presentation, availible on a CD-ROM by end of summer (2008).

542 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2008

Reviews

[Ben Sundell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very readable, but often superficial overview of Polymer science. I don't mean that in a negative way, as polymer science is incredibly vast and the book is brief by necessity.

I read this textbook in preparation for my PhD. preliminary exams, as a refreshment of the basics learned during my classes. The highest praise I can give the book is that it did a great job in this, and made me very confident going in that I wouldn't get stumped on a trivial question.

The book spans about 500 pages, divided into 14 chapters. The chapters cover basic synthesis, reaction kinetics, crystallinity and morphology, rheology, mechanical properties and many other aspects of polymer chemistry. The text is surprisingly readable, with interesting stories and tidbits from the history of polymers including famous polymer scientists. I was able to sit down and read a chapter in around an hour, and always felt that the information was useful and readily retained. The authors acknowledge the brief nature of the chapters, and write with enough levity and old-man crankiness to give the book personality as well.

My only real complaint would be that the authors sometimes digress into 5-7 page mathematical treatments, especially in the kinetics section. The math is presented in a way that's easy and logical to follow, but is so easily forgotten afterwords that I question its usefulness.

I would definitely recommend this text for someone in a similar position that I was in, or alternatively if someone is taking a survey of polymer chemistry. I can't offer much in the way of comparative texts, except to say that's it's much more readable than Odian, though it has considerably less information.