Advances in New Materials

of Polymer Chemistry, Inc. of the American Chemical Society held its The Division 15th Biennial Polymer Symposium on the topic, "Advances in New Materials," November 17-21, 1990, at the Pier 66 Resort and Marina in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. A three and one­ half day program was presented by recognized leaders in major areas of new polymeric materials. The topics of the Biennial Symposium included new high performance polymers, polymers for electronic applications, electrically conducting polymers, nonlinear optics, new polymer systems, and polymers derived from biological media. These are the subject areas of this volume of "Contemporary Topics in Polymer Science". The intent of the Symposium was to focus on recent advances in polymeric materials. The technical sessions were complemented by an initial poster session which augmented the various technical sessions. A particular highlight of the meeting was the presentation to Professor Michael Szwarc of the 1990 Division of Polymer Chemistry Award by Dr. J. L. Benham, Chairman of the T Aymer Division. During his Award address, Professor Szwarc described how he had become a polymer chemist and later developed "living polymers." Without a doubt, Professor Szwarc has made a profound contribution to the polymer field, which has yielded many new forms of living polymerization.

Perspectives on the Contributions of Michael Szwarc to Polymer Science.- Perspectives on the Contributions of Michael Szwarc to Polymer Science.- High Performance Polymers.- Preparation and Polymerization of Macrocyclic Oligomers.- Mechanism for the Amine-Catalyzed Formation of Polycarbonate Cyclics.- Poly(Enaminonitriles): New Materials with Interesting Properties.- Perfectly Alternating Segmented Polyimide Siloxane Copolymers.- High Molecular Weight Aromatic Biphenylene Polymers by Nickel Coupling of Aryl Dichlorides.- Cellulose-Polymer Composites with Improved Properties.- Synthesis of Polyimides Utilizing the Diels-Alder Reaction.- Poly(Imidazoleamides): A New Class of Heteroaromatic Polyamides.- Polymers For Electronic Applications.- Cure Kinetics of Epoxy Cresol Novolac Encapsulant for Microelectronics Packaging.- A Theoretical Treatment of the Structural Aspects of the Topochemical Polymerization of Diacetylenes.- Creating Conducting Materials Through Solution Blending of Conducting Polymers with Commercial Polymers.- Preparation of Substituted Polyphenylenes and Catalyzed Aromatization of Polycyclohexadienediol Derivatives.- Radical Cation Salts of Simple Aromatics - A Family of Organic Metals.- Approaches to Orthogonally Fused Conducting Polymers for Molecular Electronics.- Polypyrroles from Isoporous Alumina Membranes.- Synthesis of Conducting Composite Polymer Beads.- Transparent Electrically Conductive Composites by In-Situ Crystallization of (TSeT)2Cl in a polymer Matrix.- Polymer Electrolytes and Hydrogels from Polyethylene Glycols Cross-Linked with a Hydrophobic Polyisocyanate.- Nonlinear Optics.- Nonlinear Optical Properties of New Dye Doped Photocrosslinkable Polymers.- Molecular Engineering of Side Chain Liquid Crystalline Polymers.- NLO Device Structures from Polydiacetylenes Gregory L.Baker.- Recent Synthetic Developments in Mainchain Chromophoric Nonlinear Optical Polymers.- New Ferrocene Complexes and Polymers for Nonlinear Optical Applications.- Nonlinear Optical Thin Films of Platinum Poly-ynes.- Design of New Type of Liquid Crystalline Polymers Through Intermolecular Hydrogen Bonding.- Polymers From Biological Sources.- Production of Non-Natural and Functional Poly-?-Hydroxyalkanoates by Bacteria.- Genetic Engineering of Molecular and Supramolecular Structure in Polymers.- New Polymer Synthesis.- Functionalized Polyolefins via Copolymerization of Borane Monomers in Ziegler-Natta Process.- Derivatives of Poly(Alkyl/Arylphosphazenes).- Crosslinking of PMMA Elastomer Block Copolymers Through PMMA Stereocomplexes.- Synthesis and Characterization of Macrocyclic Poly(2-vinyl pyridine) and the Effect of a Rigid Coupling Agent on its properties.- Topochemically Controlled Polymerization of a Smectic Liquid Crystalline Diacrylate Monomer.