In August, 1996, the ACS Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering hosted a symposium on Interfacial Aspects of Multicomponent Polymer Materials at the Orlando, Florida, American Chemical Society meeting. Over 50 papers and posters were presented. The symposium proper was preceded by a one-day workshop, where the. basics of this relatively new field were developed. This edited book is a direct outcome of the symposium and workshop. Every object in the universe has surfaces and interfaces. A surface is defined as that part of a material in contact with either a gas or a vacuum....

To the surprise of practically no one, research and engineering on multi polymer materials has steadily increased through the 1960s and 1970s. More and more people are remarking that we are running out of new monomers to polymerize, and that the improved polymers of the future will depend heavily on synergistic combinations of existing materials. In the era of the mid-1960s, three distinct multipolymer combinations were recognized: polymer blends, grafts, and blocks. Although inter penetrating polymer networks, lPNs, were prepared very early in polymer history, and already named by Millar in...

For there is hope of a tree, If it be cut down, That it will sprout again And that the tender branch Thereof will not cease. Job XIV (7) Mankind has been blessed with a multitude of resources. In the beginning he utilized almost soley replenishable items such as vegetation and animal protein, for both nourishment and shelter. Gradually, such metals as copper and iron were developed and replaced wood as a material of construction. Cement and glass, although more plentiful than other minerals, also replaced the use of growing sub- stances. Coal and oil became the primary sources of heat and...