Polymer Glasses

Book excerpt: "the present book will be of great value for both newcomers to the field and mature active researchers by serving as a coherent and timely introduction to some of the modern approaches, ideas, results, emerging understanding, and many open questions in this fascinating field of polymer glasses, supercooled liquids, and thin films" –Kenneth S. Schweizer, Morris Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (from the Foreword) This book provides a timely and comprehensive overview of molecular level insights into polymer glasses in confined geometries and under deformation. Polymer glasses have become ubiquitous to our daily life, from the polycarbonate eyeglass lenses on the end of our nose to large acrylic glass panes holding water in aquarium tanks, with advantages over glass in that they are lightweight and easy to manufacture, while remaining transparent and rigid. The contents include an introduction to the field, as well as state of the art investigations. Chapters delve into studies of commonalities across different types of glass formers (polymers, small molecules, colloids, and granular materials), which have enabled microscopic and molecular level frameworks to be developed. The authors show how glass formers are modeled across different systems, thereby leading to treatments for polymer glasses with first-principle based approaches and molecular level detail. Readers across disciplines will benefit from this topical overview summarizing the key areas of polymer glasses, alongside an introduction to the main principles and approaches.