Polymer Colloids

Colloid Science is an ancient art. Unfortunately many scientists still regard it as such~ We hope that this book will dispel all such illusions by providing convincing evidence that a quiet renaissance has occurred. The New Colloid Science is based on rigorous, quantitative theory and works with extremely well de­ fined experimental systems. The former was first made possible by the advent of the Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory of the stability of lyophobic colloids in 1948. This is based on a consideration of the electrostatic interactions among colloidal par­ ticles bearing fixed charges in a medium containing moving counter­ ions. The Hamiltonian formulation of this model by Weiss, Mock, and Moon herein is a significant development in our theoretical pro­ gress. During about the same period we have advanced experimentally from poorly defined "glue-like" systems to monodisperse colloids, synthesized for the first time in 1955 when J. W. Vanderhoff and E. B. Bradford announced their polystyrene colloids with extremely narrow particle size distributions. Vanderhoff and his coworkers have now set another milestone by fully characterizing the surfaces of these systems, as described in this monograph. The revolution is snowballing. Krieger and his coworkers have shown that the opalescent colors exhibited by "deionized" monodis­ perse latexes are due to Bragg diffraction of these liquid-crystal systems, that they exhibit reversible "melting" and that they may serve as macroscopic models for order-disorder phenomena.

There have been many articles and some books written on various aspects of polymer colloids, emulsion polymerization, latex technology and realted applications. These are based in turn on a voluminous literature in scientific journals and patents. As a result, the scientist entering this academically and commercially important field, may well be bewildered as to where to start.

Polymer Colloids: A Comprehensive Introduction employes a holistic approach to a complex field concentrating on solid development of the fundamentals. The reader is provided with a rich source of figures and references, especially those deemed to represent significant benchmarks, or fundamental turning points, in the development of the science and technology of polymer colloids. Primarily written for the researcher entering the field, the book provides an excellent introduction for graduate students. Some of the latest advances covered in this volume include:

. biomedical applications such as cancer
chemotherapy and DNA probes

. mesoscale models of crystalline systems

. the rheology of complex fluids

. small angle neutron scattering (SANS) for
particle structures

. photothermal nanosecond light-switching devices