532 Book reviews

Chemistry provides a timely review of progress in the rapidly developing technology of radiation curable systems for surface coating applications.

The resins and monomers currently employed in radiation cuiablc coatings for well established areas such as printing inks and wood lacquers are described, together with a review of newer applications including the printing and coating of metals and plastics and adhesive uses. Curing methods by both electron beam (EB) and radicals initiated by laser photons are described along with the conventional UV/photoinitiator system.

The advantages and disadvantages (including, in some cases, continuing technical problems) of radiation curable coatings are clearly reviewed in the fields of metal coating, off-set and screen printing inks, UV curable lacquers and wood finishes. Advances in photoinitiafors, including novel water-soluble thioxanthone photoinitiators, prepolymers for water thinnable systems and functional monomers containing carboxylic acid, phosphate and alkoxy-silane groups are also described.

Analytical methods, including both infra-red and dilato- metric techniques are shown to be useful methods for assessing the efficiency of photoinitiators in photocurable systems.

In summary, this volume provides an excellent ‘state-of-the- art’ summary of Radiation Curing Technology.

D. R. Karsa

Inorganic and organometallic polymers: macromolecules con- taining silicon, phosphorus, and other inorganic elements Edited by M. Zeldin, K. J. Wynne and H. R. Alcock, ACS Symposium Series No. 360, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 1988. pp. xii + 512, price $99.95 (USA and Canada), $119.95 (rest of world). ISBN 0-8412-1442-5

This book contains the texts of 39 papers presented at a Symposium sponsored by the Divisions of Inorganic Chemistry, Polymer Chemistry and Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering of the ACS in 1987. The camera-ready copy is all clear and legible, with comprehensive indexes. It is a mixture of review articles and specialist research reports: after an introductory paper, the remaining texts are divided into seven sections covering respectively polysilanes and polycarbosilanes (8 papers), polysilazanes and polysilazoxanes (4 papers), polysiloxanes (5 papers), polyphosphazenes (7 papers), organoelement-oxo polymers derived from sol-gel processes (4 papers), boron-containing polymers (3 papers), and other metal and metalloid-containing polymers (7 papers). Slightly over half the book, therefore, is devoted to the chemistry of silicon derivatives.

Although several papers deal solely with the synthesis, characterisation and physical properties of specific inorganic, or organometallic polymers, other papers, slanted more towards possible applications, serve to show why this field is of increasing interest. For example, in the sol-gel process for making glasses and ceramics it is possible to grow ceramic polymers in solution at room temperature, shape by casting, film formation or fibre drawing, and then consolidate at temperatures often 50% less than those required by more conventional processes. Some eight papers deal with this process, or with synthesis of ceramic precursors. Other applications covered (9 papers) include photoresists, photoinitiators, photoconductors, electroactive polymer coatings for electrode surfaces and elastomers. Some of

the PN polymers show promise as biocompatible, or bioactive materials. This does not take into account any special low, or high temperature properties that the materials may have and there is little doubt that for higher temperature use we will have to move from organic to inorganic polymers.

The book gives a very good review of the state of thc art in this important area in early 1987 (congratulations to ACS on rapid publication), and will be of interest to all those involved in inorganic, or organometallic polymer work and interested in the newer applications of polymers.

W. W. Wright

Cellulose hydrolysis (Biotechnology monographs, Vol. 3) Edited by L.-T. Fan, M. M. Gharpuray and Y.-H. Lee, Springer- Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, London, Paris and Tokyo, 1987. pp. viii + 198, price DM168.00.

Lignocellulosic materials are the parents of cellulose and consist of three major components: cellulosc, hemicellulose and lignin.

Cellulose itself is a structural carbohydrate polymer abund- antly available in nature. It is present in trees, plants, crops and grasses, so vast amounts of cellulose also exist in cellulosic wastes, such as municipal wastc, agricultural wastes and animal manure .

In order to utilise cellulose as feedstock for production of energy, food and chemicals, its degradation to D-glUCOSe is essential for further fermentation. However, cellulose is resistant to degradation, since a cellulose molecule serves widely in nature as a structural molecule rather than as a molecule to store energy.

The two modes of converting the carbohydrate components into their constituent sugar are enzymatic hydrolysis and acid hydrolysis. This book is concerned with the numerous aspects of cellulose hydrolysis. In the section on the ‘Nature of cellulosic material’, the chemical and physical structures of crystalline and fibrous celluloses affecting their hydrolyses are discussed. An extensive review on ‘Enzymatic hydrolysis’ of cellulose includes descriptions of the different ways of enzyme action on crystalline and water swollen cellulose as well as the properties and mode of cellulase biodegradation, pretreatment methods, and kinetics of enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose.

The book continues with discussions of the mechanism and kinetics of acid hydrolysis. Finally, the design and economic evaluation of cellulosc hydrolysis processes are addressed from the viewpoint of creating commercially viable hydrolysis processes for a variety of cellulosic materials.

This book can be recommended to those who are involved in this important area of production of energy from cellulose and cellulose derivatives. Furthermore, students, academics and industrialists can gain considerable information by studying this text. However, the latest references, dated 1983, seem old for a book published in 1987.

ISBN 3-540-17671-3

E. Melo J. F. Kennedy

Carbohydrate chemistry, Volume 15, Part I1 Macromolecules. Senior reporter J. F. Kennedy, Specialist Periodical Reports, Royal Society of Chemistry, London, 1986. pp. xiii + 820, price E125.00, $226.00. ISBN 0-85186-152-0

BRITISH POLYMER JOURNAL VOL. 20, NO. 6,1988