This book introduces a variety of techniques to characterize polymers in solutions such as:
▪ Molecular weight determination by osmotic pressure, sedimentation, light-scattering, and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectroscopy (MALDI-TOF-MS) analyses. ▪ Molecular weight distribution by size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) and MALDI-TOF-MS. ▪ Conformation analyses by intrinsic viscosity and static light scattering (SLS) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements including analyses of chain branching and chain stiffness. ▪ Analyses of aggregates by combining SLS and DLS. ▪ Stereo- and chemical-sequence analyses by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). ▪ Determination of purity of cyclic and block copolymers by liquid chromatography at critical condition (LCCC) and temperature-gradient interaction chromatography (TGIC). This book may be used by university students and researchers in industrial and research facilities to find ways to obtain the desired property of the polymer system quickly like a dictionary.
Yo Nakamura received his PhD from Osaka University in 1992. His research interests are mainly in the dimensional and hydrodynamic properties of polymers in solutions, as well as intra- and intermolecular interactions, using scattering techniques. He is currently a Professor of the Department of Polymer Chemistry at Kyoto University. Dr. Nakamura is a co-author of a chapter in Soft-Matter Characterization (eds. R. Borsali and R. Pecora, Springer, 2008) and a chapter in Polymer Characterization (eds. T. Hashimoto, H. W. Spiess, and M. Takenaka), which is the Vol. 2 in the series Polymer Science: A Comprehensive Reference (eds. K. Matyjaszewski and M. Möller, 2012).
Ken Terao received his Ph.D. from Osaka University in 1999. His research interests focus on the structure and dynamics of polymers in solutions, particularly their conformational properties, intermolecular interactions, and self-assembly behavior. He employs various scattering techniques and spectroscopic methods to investigate polymer molecules in solutions. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Macromolecular Science at Osaka University. Dr. Terao has authored book chapters in Encyclopedia of Polymeric Nanomaterials (Springer, 2015) and Bioinspired Materials Science and Engineering (Wiley, 2018). Tomohiro Hirano received his Ph.D. from Osaka University in 1999. His research interests are mainly in the synthesis of well-defined polymers by radical and ionic polymerizations and the structural characterization of polymers by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Applied Chemistry at Tokushima University. Dr. Hirano is a co-author of the chapter "Stereospecific Polymerization" in the Encyclopedia of Polymeric Materials (eds. S. Kobayashi and K. Müllen, Springer, 2015). Atsushi Takano received his PhD from the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1991. After joining the Nagaoka University of Technology as a research associate for eight years, he moved to the Nagoya University in 1999, where he started his career as a polymer scientist in the field of polymer physics. He was promoted to professor in 2024 in institute of innovation for future society at the Nagoya University. His present research interests are (1) solution- and bulk properties of ring polymers and their derivatives, and (2) morphology control of block copolymers.
