Book reviews

Modern fluoropolymersEdited by John ScheirsJohn Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 1997637 pp, price: £145.00ISBN 0-471-97055-7

The last 25 years have seen the introduction of

numerous new ¯uoropolymers and ¯uoroelastomers.

These developments have widened considerably the

scope and applications of ¯uorine-containing poly-

mers. This volume provides an overview of a compre-

hensive range of commercial ¯uoropolymers with an

emphasis on structure/property behaviour and their

diverse ®elds of applications.

Topics covered include crystalline and amorphous

¯uoropolymers, ¯uoroelastomers, coatings, sealants,

linings, electrical properties, surface properties, effects

of radiation, chemical resistance, and failure modes of

¯uoropolymers. With chapters written by experts from

industry and academia from North America, Europe,

Japan, Australia and Russia, the book is truly interna-

tional in scope and will be welcomed by researchers,

processors and uses of all types of ¯uoropolymers.

F Schue

Water soluble poly- N-vinylamides: synthesis andphysicochemical propertiesYE KirshJohn Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 1998pp viii�233, price £70.00ISBN 0-471-97630

The author of this book is from a group in Russia that

has worked extensively on this class of water-soluble

synthetic polymers, where the common feature is a

pendent amide group (along with a variety of alkyl

groups) on the monomer unit. However, the text is

primarily concerned with polyvinylpyrrolidone and

polyvinylcaprolactam, where the pendent amide group

is a ring lactam. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) was

developed by Reppe and co-workers in the 1930s

and used as a blood plasma expander by the German

armed forces in World War 2: it is evidently still used

for this purpose in Russia. Polyvinylcaprolactam

(PVCL) is now of particular interest because it shows

inverse solubility behaviour around 30°C, leading to

reversible precipitation and gelation effects, with some

practical applications.

Chapter 1 of the book is concerned with the

synthesis of these monomers, and with their molecular

conformation. For the vinylation step of the synthesis

reaction, catalysts are now available that allow the use

of acetylene at pressures close to atmospheric, in

contrast to those of 25 atmospheres or so required in

the original Reppe process.

Chapter 2 describes the radical polymerization of

these monomers, the microstructure of the polymers

produced, and their molecular weights and molecular

weight distributions, whilst Chapter 3 deals with the

conformation and `solvation' behaviour and of these

polymers in aqueous solution. Both PVP and PVCL

have the inverse solubility/temperature behaviour

shown by many other polymers in aqueous solution.

With PVP, the � temperature is above the normal

boiling point, estimated as 130±140°. With PVCL, the

� temperature is evidently around 30°. More study of

the thermodynamic parameters for these polymer

solutions, and their relation to the structure of the

monomer unit is fundamental to fuller understanding

of the behaviour of these polymers.

Chapter 4 describes the `soft' complexes in aqueous

solution that are a notable feature of PVP, especially

interactions with triiodide ions (and related iodide

species) in the `iodophores', and with aromatic mol-

ecules ranging in complexity from phenol to the azo

dyes, which have been the subject of much academic

work, arising from a variety of practical applications.

There seem to be some errors here in the reference

numbers, especially in section 4.3; the site size for

complexing of aromatic molecules should be (approxi-

mately) 10 monomer units, rather than one monomer

unit as quoted on p 141.

Chapter 5 reviews possible modi®cation reactions,

notably the ring opening hydrolysis reaction. It also

covers the reactions taking place in the solid state

`cooking' processes used to produce the PVP±iodine

complexes used as biocides.

About half of the 360 references listed relate to work

of Russian origin. It is useful to have a review of this

work that is otherwise rather inaccessible; some non-

Russian work is not mentioned.

For this reviewer's taste there is rather too much

speculation on the role of water structure and water-

molecule polarization in the interpretation of the

experimental work. However, this book is a useful

survey of an important and interesting group of

polymers.

P Molyneux

Polymer International Polym Int 48:426 (1999)

# 1999 Society of Chemical Industry. Polym Int 0959±8103/99/$17.50 426