Part I. General Introduction: A bird's-eye view of polymer science and engineering. Polymer properties. Typology of polymers. Typology of properties. History.
Part II. Thermophysical properties of polymers. Volumetric properties. Calorimetric properties. Transition temperatures. Cohesive properties and solubility. Interfacial energy properties. Limiting viscosity number (intrinsic viscosity) and related properties of very dilute solutions.
Part III. Properties of polymers in fields of force. Optical properties. Electrical properties. Magnetic properties. Mechanical properties of solid polymers. Acoustic properties.
Part IV. Transport properties of polymers. Rheological properties of the polymer melt. Rheological properties of polymer solutions. Transport of thermal energy. Properties determining mass transfer in polymeric systems. Crystallization and recrystallization.
Part V. Properties determining the chemical stability and breakdown of polymers. Thermochemical properties. Thermal decomposition. Chemical degradation. Environmental failure.
Part VI. Polymer properties as an integral concept. Intrinsic properties in retrospect. Processing properties. Product properties (I): mechanical behaviour and failure. Product properties (II): environmental behaviour and failure. An illustrative example of end use properties: article properties of textile products. Part VII. Comprehensive tables. The international system of units (SI). Survey of conversion factors. Values of some fundamental constants. Physical constants of the most important solvents. Physical properties of the most important polymers. Published data on "high performance" polymers. Code symbols for the most important polymers. Trade names and generic names. Survey of group contributions in additive molar quantities.
Symbol Index. Author Index. Subject Index.
D.W. van Krevelen, Professor-Emeritus, University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands and Former President of AKZO Research and Engineering N.V., Arnhem, The Netherlands
Klaas te Nijenhuis, Associate Professor-Emeritus, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands