452 Book reviews

using diffusion barriers and the other with a chemical ‘sequestering’ process using natural tannins.

The book concludes with chapters describing current American and European emission requirements.

This is a specialist text but to academic, public institution and industrial researchers working in the area, a valuable one to have on the shelf.

W. B. Banks

Materials degradation caused by acid rain Edited by R. Baboian, ACS Symposium Series No. 318, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 1986. pp. xi +447, price $79.95 (USA & Canada), $95.95 (rest of world). ISBN 0-8412-0988-x

The theme of this volume is one which is likely to interest not only the specialist in chemical degradation, but also a wider readership of chemists, because of its widespread adverse effects on our environment. The book is a collection of 29 papers, presented at an ACS symposium in June 1985.

The topics considered are grouped into five broad areas: ‘Measurement and monitoring of atmospheric deposition’ ( 5 papers), ‘Metallic corrosion’ (9 papers), ‘Masonry deterior- ation’ (7 papers), ‘Degradation of organics’ (3 papers) and ‘Economic effects’ (5 papers). The polymer chemist working with synthetic organic polymers will find little reference to such materials in the book (although there is one paper dealing with nylon).

This volume reflects those areas in which the contributors are actively researching, rather than a considered single view of the important aspects considered relevant to the main theme. Although the style and depth of treatment vary from one contribution to the next and the total coverage is not comprehensive, this is a valuablc record of current knowledge in a relatively little studied area.

The format is based on direct copying of camera-ready typed manuscripts: the standard of presentation is high throughout.

I. C. McNeill

Silicon and silicones E. G. Rochow, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1987. pp. xi + 181, price DM 24.80. ISBN 3-540-17565-2

This is a self-indulgent book, written in retirement, by one of the founders of the silicone industry. Please allow the author his foibles and reminiscences and enjoy it-as I did. Knowledgable from having worked and published in the field, I still learned from many of its pages.

These are said to be for the non-specialist reader but complex organic structural formulae are used (p. 158 et seg.), and there is a lengthy 10 pages on NMR complete with absorption lines and derivative curves. The target reader groups have obviously not been identified; only the individuality of the writer. For example,

the discussion of the glass transition temperature and its importance for polymers to the non-specialist would be far better conducted in terms of the free volume rather than chain mobility via NMR. Tables of properties, useful to a polymer technologist (e.g. detailed properties of cured silicone rubbers, Tables 6.7-69) interrupt a down-to-earth narrative.

The wide range of the introduction can be judged by the reference to the storage jars at Knossos which, however, arc usually dated to the middle Minoan period ending 1400 BC

rather than 2000 BC. Its conclusion has reached into the space age and silylation to aid drug delivery. The book is ideal for the 17 year old: it is still reading for the 70 year old, and for many in bctwcen. The book is well printed and produced, reasonably priced and certainly to be recommended.

W. C. Wake

RAPRA review reports, Vol. 1, No. 1 (4 issues, 3 reports per issue) Series editor R. Meredith, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1987. Single report DM175.00, annual subscription DM880.00. ISSN 0889-3144

This is the first issue of a new publication. Each issue will contain three commissioned reports intended to be ‘state-of-the-art’ reviews on topics in polymer science and engineering, supported by a comprehensive bibliography, with a summary of each title cited, taken from RAPRA Abstracts and by a subject index. This first issue covers ‘Conductive polymers’, ‘Medical and pharmaceutical applications of polymers’, and ‘Advanced composites’. Each review contains some 15 OW20000 words, followed by about 400 abstract references.

Are, then, the stated intentions fulfilled? In the opinion of this reviewer, some major improvements are needed before this can be said. The texts are readable and reasonably informative, but the source abstracts quoted are mainly obsolete, with very few from languages other than English, and a complete absence of patent literature sources. As an example, the use of polymers in controlled release systems for pharmaceuticals is covered in half a page of text, with 12 general references: the reader would not know that over 200 US Patents in this field have been published in each of the years 1984 to 1986.

Thc subject indexes, obviously generated by an unintelligent computer, are milestones of unselective detail obscuring some genuine utility-the index of the first review includes over 200 citations on ‘polyacetylene’ (without further description), there are over 60 citations to ‘PU’ (just that!) in the second, and over 180 references to ‘epoxy resin’ in the third review. Before this kind of computerized overkill takes hold (it is a new development, presumably based on the wider availability, of large-memory PCs), the editors who allow it should consider more carefully the use which readers wish to make of an index.

The publication has some limited value to specialists in the topics reviewed. It is much more expensive than the utility justifies

c. Aspell

BRITISH POLYMER JOURNAL VOL. 20, NO. 5,1988