Preston

Book Reviews Mild criticism must be made of the arbitrariness of selection at various points. Chapters 1 and 4, for example, describe aliphatic dicarboxylic and hydroxycarboxylic acids, virtually irrespective of their specific utility as condensants, and hence including many substances of minimum interest as 'monomers'. Industrial processes are treated only sketchily and little attempt is made to present a critical comparison of the various large-scale routes and procedures available for intermediates manufacture. Surprisingly, the important family of amino acids is not considered, and other significant omissions concerned the phenol precursors of aromatic polyethers; trimesic acid; the diphenyl- and diphenoxyalkane dicarboxylic acids; the biscarbamoyl chlorides; the methyladipic acids, and the difunctional trimethyl hexamethylene compounds, all of which have acquired considerable interest as condensants in recent years. There has been some laxity in proof-reading. The many errors noted included various mis-spellings of the names 'Qiana' and 'Henkel' and (on pp 105 and 509) certain difficulties with 'formyl' and 'phthaloyl'. On p 303, Dickson (the co-inventor of Terylene) is misnamed. The pagination of pp 437-8 was unfortunately transposed in the review copy, and it is to be hoped that users of the analytical method on p 457 will not maintain their water condensers at 250°C! Spectra of the more important substances could usefully have been included, as could an author index. The book is not a work of theory, nor one designed to offer new insights into the subject. Its value is as a compendium of facts and methods, particularly for laboratory use. As such, despite some limitations and blemishes, it can be recommended to research workers seeking help in planning the synthesis of novel condensation polymers.

L Goodman

Water soluble polymers Edited by N. M. Bikales Plenum Press, New York, 1973, 424 pp. $23.00 In recent years water soluble polymers have been attracting increasing attention because of their usefulness in industrial and environmental applications. The most notable properties of these polymers is their ability to flocculate suspended solids and this has led to important applications in sewage treatment and paper making technology (drainage and retention aids). Other important applications include the so-called secondary recovery of petroleum from oil fields, the reduction of turbulent friction of fluids and as a component of water based finished and coatings. This book, which is based on papers presented to a symposium held by the American Chemical Society in August 1972, provides an important and valuable review of the above topics and also a number of papers on the synthesis and characterization of water soluble polymers. The industrial manufacture of one of the most important

of these polymers, polyacrylamide, is described in detail. The description of many new polymers and their synthesis is discussed in six papers. The section on Characterization (six papers) includes the description of the methods of exclusion chromatography, sedimentation equilibrium, viscoelastic properties together with an account of the biological activity of these polymers. The papers as a whole provide a thorough examination of this new and important area of polymer science and application.

C. E. H. Brown

High-modulus wholly aromatic fibres Edited by W. B. Black and J. Preston Marcel Dekker, New York, 1973. $22.50 The search for fibres having improved strength, modulus and high-temperature performance compared with conventional materials for use as reinforcing agents and in other specialized applications is of the greatest industrial importance. The publication of a book devoted to one particular class of materials which show great promise is, therefore, welcome, even though it is based on the proceedings of a conference at which the contributors, with one exception, were from a single company, and some of the contributions have previously been published elsewhere. Actually, although the editors in their preface apologize for the restricted sources of the contributions, this is in fact an advantage from the reader's point of view, for it gives to the whole a unity of aim and general cohesion which is all too often lacking in collective works of this kind. The contributions are arranged in three main sections, concerned respectively with: (a) the chemistry involved in the preparation of aromatic fibres, mainly of the polyamide--hydrazide type; (b) the characterization of the morphology and physical properties of a representative type of fibre; and (c) applications to composites, tyre cords, etc. The materials examined have values of tenacity of the order of 500 g/denier, combined with sufficiently high values of extensibility ( ~ 4 % or more) to give them considerable advantages over their principal competitors (glass, carbon fibres, etc.). It is surprising (to the reviewer) to see how far the technical development and scientific assessment of this class of materials has advanced. Of particular interest are the frequent allusions to the calculated values of elastic modulus, inspired by the original work of H. Mark, work which at the time must surely have been regarded as of purely academic interest, but which is now seen to have quite direct practical relevance. The book is well produced, and will be held in considerable esteem by both academic and industrial workers in the field of synthetic polymers and fibres.

L. R. G. Treloar

Conference Announcement

Conference Announcement

Rubber and Rubber Elasticity

State of order in amorphous polymers

UMIST, Manchester, 27 and 28 March 1974

Sorrento, Naples, Italy, 1-3 May 1974

The Fifth Biennial Manchester Polymer Symposium on Rubber and Rubber Elasticity has been organized at UMIST on 27 and 28 March 1974 to mark the retirement of Professor L. R. G. Treloar from his Chair of Polymer and Fibre Science in the Institute. Recent developments in the chemistry and physics of elastomers will be presented by distinguished workers from USA, Japan and UK. Applications for registration should be made as soon as possible to The Registrar, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), PO Box 88, Manchester M60 1QD, UK.

The 2nd Europhysics Conference of the Section of Macromolecular Physics (of the European Physical Society, Division of the Physics of Condensed Matter), originally scheduled to take place in October 1973 at Naples, will now be held from 1 to 3 May 1974 at Sorrento, near Naples. A full programme of both invited and contributed papers on the State of Order in Amorphous Polymers has been arranged. Further details may be obtained from Professor Paolo Corradini, Istituto Chimico, Via Mezzocannone 4, 80134 Napoli, Italy.

192 POLYMER, 1974, Vol. 15, March