Polymeric Liquids & Networks

Polymeric Liquids & Networks: Dynamics and Rheology is the second part of a two-volume treatise serving as a status report on a broad area of polymer science research. It represents an effort to unify and consolidate the work of many polymer researchers from all over the world, over the past 60-70 years. Both books are based on the graduate courses taught by the author at Princeton and Northwestern. The increasing need to apply new understandings about liquid structure to rheological behavior squeezed equilibrium aspects out of the rheology course and into another graduate course, which eventually became the basis for Volume 1, Structure and Properties, published in 2004. Volume 2 follows the original plan by building upon Volume 1—covering continuum background along with experimental observations, then molecular theories and applications to such topics as solution properties, long-chain branching and structural heterodispersity.

Dynamics and Rheology aims to leave readers with a solid grounding in the principles that underlie the dynamics and rheological behavior of flexible chain polymer liquids and networks. Readers will develop an informed intuitive understanding of the connections between polymeric structure and rheological response. Theory, experiment, and simulation are woven together so as to leave the reader with a balanced grasp of the various areas, including exposure to important unsolved puzzles. The book will be a great resource for a range of academic researchers in chemistry, physics, materials science, and chemical engineering.

William W. Graessley holds B.S. degrees in both chemistry and chemical engineering from the University of Michigan, as well as a PhD. After four years with the Air Reduction Company, he joined the Chemical Engineering and Materials Science departments at Northwestern University. In 1982 he returned to industry as a senior scientific adviser at Exxon Corporate Laboratories and moved in 1987 to become professor of chemical engineering at Princeton University. He has published extensively on radiation cross-linking of polymers, polymerization reactor engineering, molecular aspects of polymer rheology, rubber network elasticity; and the thermodynamics of polymer blends. During 1979-80 he was a senior visiting fellow at Cambridge University. He now lives in Michigan as professor emeritus from Princeton and adjunct professor at Northwestern. His honors include an NSF Pre-doctoral Fellowship, the Bingham Medal (Society of Rheology), the Whitby Lectureship (University of Akron), the High Polymer Physics Prize (American Physical Society), and membership in the National Academy of Engineering.