80 Book reviews

aging area. Enhancement of the wetting of surfaces and pro- duction of antistatic coatings has been critical in the production of better materials, and plasma, together with corona discharge, have made significant contributions in this area. The other area where plasma treatment is important is the semi-conductor industry where it appears as ‘dry pro- cessing’. The review focuses on treatments of film and yarn and the production of fairly high levels of chemical modifi- cation. The advantages of plasma over corona are emphasised. The second section, devoted to characterisation of plasma treated surfaces, discusses to some extent the importance of a knowledge of the chemistry of the plasma hut, primarily, is directed to the correlation of surface functionality with changes achieved in physical properties of the surface. Appli- cation of these processes to a range of materials is described in the final section, which discusses carbon fibres, polyimides, polyethylene, polyethyleneoxide and other systems.

The book is well produced, and will be of interest to some researchers, but one wonders whether they will be sufficiently desirous of the papers to wish to purchase them as a book. The material covers a range of topics in the area of plasma processing but is unlikely to be timeless. It may be a good purchase for the specialist but probably not so attractive to the general reader who can browse this area from the journal.

R. A. Pethrick

Polymers from agricultural coproducts ACS Symposium Series No. 575. Edited by M. L. Fishman, R. B. Friedman and S. J. Huang. American Chemical Society, Washington DC, 1994. pp. viii + 247, price US$69.95. ISBN 0-8412-3041-2

There is an abundance of natural, renewable biomass resources which could, and should, be used for the production of materials, especially plastics, and other chemicals. There is growing consensus among industrialised nations for the need for research into the conversion of underutilised agricultural coproducts and surplus crops into new products/materials.

Such new by-product utilisations could also enhance rural development since new industries may seek to locate close to the supply of raw materials. Another benefit is the production of raw materials from sustainable and renewable resources rather than the depletion of finite petroleum resources.

Many of the biopolymers derived from agricultural com- modities have beneficial properties compared with their syn- thetic counterparts since they often biodegrade rapidly when composted, which may for certain applications be more advantageous than the slow degradation of synthetic poly- mers.

Polymers from Agricultural Coproducts gathers together leading scientists in the field of polymers derived from agricul- tural materials. The diversity of these is reflected in the con- tents. The first section contains two overview chapters which deal with the rationales and economic prospects for the pro- duction of agriculturally derived polymers, as well as the status of technology for such degradable polymer production and applications.

The last three sections detail the characterisation, synthesis, modification, and isolation of specific groups of polymers and polymeric materials, including starches, starch blends, com- posites, other polysaccharides, oligosaccharides, monosacchar- ides, polyamides, proteins, polyesters, and rubbers.

Use of starch as a thermoplastic material is a recent devel- opment. An understanding of the rheology of thermoplastic starch melts is needed in order to understand the effects of processing on structure/property relationships. Polyamides containing the naturally occurring a-L-amino acid linkages belong to a class of potentially biodegradable polymers whose applications are numerous, especially in agriculture and the biomedical field. Other topics discussed include the controlled release of phytodrugs from hydrogel-type polymers, poly- urethane foams, corn starch-derived chemicals, and the prep- aration of hydroxylated nylons.

Overall this is a well presented and informative volume on the production of polymers from sustainable and renewable agricultural resources. It is thoroughly recommended to anyone with interests in such fields.

J. F. Kennedy C. J. Knill

POLYMER INTERNATIONAL VOL. 39, NO. 1, 1996