Polymer International 42 (1997) 127È128

Book Reviews

High-temperature properties and applications of polymericmaterialsEdited by M. R. Tant, J. W. Connell and H. L. N. McManus.American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 1995.pp. viii] 256, price US$69.95.ISBN 0-8412-3313-6

This book contains the proceedings of an ACS symposiumheld at San Diego, California, in March 1994. The papers arereproduced from camera-ready copy, with the usual mixtureof type fonts and methods of referencing tables, Ðgures, etc. Allthe papers are, however, clear and easily legible.

The book comprises 16 papers, 12 from the USA and oneeach from Australia, Canada, France and Italy, with themajority from academic institutions. Following an overviewpaper, the remainder are divided into three sections dealing,respectively, with properties (four papers), processing andmodelling (Ðve), and applications and new materials (six).

The overview paper covers heat transfer mechanisms, thermo-physical and thermomechanical properties and gives a verybrief summary of polymers for high temperature applications.

The section on properties also considers thermophysicalproperties of carbon Ðbre-reinforced epoxies and phenolicsand thermogravimetric analysis of silicone polymers with andwithout cerium and zirconium octanoates as stabilisers. Morespecialised techniques employed are MoireÏ interferometry atelevated temperatures and positron annihilation spectroscopy

(PALS) as a probe for free volume in polymers and their com-posites.

In the section on processing and modelling, there is onepaper on Ñow, thermal stress and crystallisation during injec-tion moulding. Another paper describes the interaction ofPEEK and polysulphones with supercritical Ñuids. Theremaining papers deal in one way or another with thermalbreakdownÈmodelling of ablation, Monte Carlo simulationof high temperature degradation and fracture, autocatalyticmodelling of weight loss results and degradation kinetics.

The third and Ðnal section on applications (although char-acterisation would be a more apt title) and new materials con-centrates largely upon polyimides, polyamideimides andpolybenzimidazoles. Synthesis of the polymers, and character-isation by the usual methods of viscosity, TGA, DSC andDMA are described. Another common theme (three papers) isthe incorporation of phospine oxide groups into the polymerbackbone. One specialised paper deals with the inÑuence ofchemical structure on the refractive index of polyimides.

The papers are all well set out and written, and a fair pro-portion of the references (33%) date from 1991 or later. Thoseconcerned with high temperature, high performance polymerswould certainly want to read this compendium.

W. W. Wright

1Polymer International 0959-8103/97/$09.00 1997 SCI. Printed in Great Britain(