This new edition includes better values of properties already reported, properties not reported in time for the earlier edition, and entirely new properties becoming important for modern polymer applications. It also contains 217 total polymers, 20 of which are all-new, particularly in high-technology areas such as eletrical conductivity, non-linear optical properties, microlithography, nanophotonics, and electroluminescences. Examples of specific polymers include silsesquoxane ladder polymers, 'foldamer' self-assembling polymers, and block copolymers that phase separate into 'mushrooms', ellipsoids, and sheets with on surface radically different in properties from the other.

About the Author:
James E. Mark is a Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Cincinnati. He has extensive research and consulting experience in the industry and has served as a Visiting Professor at several institutions. Dr. Mark's research interests pertain to the physical chemistry of polymers, including the elasticity of polymer networks, hybrid organic-inorganic composites, liquid-crystalline polymers, and a variety of computer simulations. He is an extensive lecturer in polymer chemistry, is an organizer and participant in a number of short courses, and has published approximately 675 research papers and coauthored or co-edited twenty-four books. He is also the founding editor of the journal Computational and Theoretical Polymer Science, which was started in 1990, is an editor for the journal Polymer, and serves on a number of journal Editorial Boards. Dr. Mark is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Physical Society, and the American Association for the
Advancement of Science.

Books by same author Polymer Data Handbook, ed. by J. E. Mark, Oxford University Press, New York, 1999. Contemporary Polymer Chemistry, 3rd Edition, H. R. Allcock, F. W. Lampe, and J. E. Mark, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 2003. Physical Properties of Polymers, 3rd Ed., J. E. Mark, A. Eisenberg, W. W. Graessley, L. Mandelkern, E. T. Samulski, J. L. Koenig, and G. D. Wignall, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2004. Inorganic Polymers, 2nd Edition, J. E. Mark, H. R. Allcock, and R. West, Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 2005. Science and Technology of Rubber, 3rd Ed., ed. by J. E. Mark, B. Erman, and F. R. Eirich, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2005. Physical Properties of Polymers Handbook, 2nd Edition, ed. by J. E. Mark, Springer Verlag, New York, NY, 2007.