Polymeric Systems, Volume 94

It is difficult to imagine how our highly evolved technologicalsociety would function, or how life would even exist on our planet,if polymers did not exist. The intensive study of polymericsystems, which has been under way for several decades, has recentlyyielded new insights into the properties of assemblies of thesecomplex molecules and the physical principles that govern theirbehavior. These developments have included new concepts to describeaspects of the many body behavior in these systems, microscopicanalyses that bring our understanding of these systems much closerto our understanding of simple liquids and solids, and thediscovery of novel chemistry that these molecules cancatalyze. This special topic volume of Advances in Chemical Physics surveys anumber of these recent accomplishments. Supplemented with more than250 illustrations, it provides a significant, up-to-date selectionof papers by inter-nationally recognized researchers. Topics include: * Theory of Polyelectrolyte Solutions * Star Polymers: Experiment, Theory, and Simulation * Tethered Polymer Layers * Living Polymers * Transport and Kinetics in Electroactive Polymers Self-contained, authoritative, and timely, Polymeric Systems makesthe cutting edge of polymer research available to scientists inevery branch of chemical physics. Contributors to POLYMERIC SYSTEMS JEAN-LOUIS BARRAT, Département de Physique des Matériaux,Université Claude Bernard-Lyon l, France A. BAUMGÄRTNER, Institut für Festkörperforschung,Germany M. A. CARIGNANO, Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, WestLafayette, Indiana LEWIS J. FETTERS, Corporate Research Science Laboratories, ExxonResearch and Engineering Company, Annandale, New Jersey SANDRA C. GREER, Department of Chemical Engineering, University ofMaryland at College Park GARY S. GREST, Corporate Research Science Laboratories, ExxonResearch and Engineering Company, Annandale, New Jersey JOHN S. HUANG, Corporate Research Science Laboratories, ExxonResearch and Engineering Company, Annandale, New Jersey JEAN-FRANÇOIS JOANNY, Institut Charles Sadron, France MICHAEL E. G. LYONS, Electroactive Polymer Research Group, PhysicalChemistry Laboratory, University of Dublin, Ireland M. MUTHUKUMAR, Department of Polymer Science, University ofMassachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts DIETER RICHTER, Institut für Festkörperforschung,Germany I. SZLEIFER, Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, WestLafayette, Indiana