Gels

This volume contains the proceedings of the Europhysics Conference on Gels, held in Balatonszeplak, Hungary, in September 1995.
Topics of the contributions cover fundamentals and applications of gels formed from inorganic and organic polymers, colloidal particles and surfactant systems, new powerful methods such as scattering techniques, rheology, atomic microscopy, swelling pressure and mechanical measurements, gels with sensitivity to changes in chemical and physical environment, novel technical and biomedical applications, computer simulation and new theoretical approaches.

Monte-Carlo modeling of polymer network formation.- Relaxation properties of polymer gels and concept of physical networks.- Characterization of helical structures in gelatin networks and model polypeptides by circular dichroism.- Influence of shear rate on gelation of biopolymers solution.- Photochemical activity of the bacterial reaction center in polymer-like phospholipids reverse micelles.- Rheological properties of modified cellulosic polymers in semi-dilute regime: Effect of salinity and temperature.- Rheological properties of schizophyllan in presence of borate ions.- Molecular modelling of cellulose and hyaluronan three-dimensional structure.- Bond blocks concept in kinetics of formation and destruction of polymer gels.- Sol-gel transition and molecular dynamics in the systems based on the copolymer of methyl methacrylate with methacrylic acid.- Titania sols and gels synthesized from reverse micelles.- Gels with magnetic properties.- Networks of surfactant-made physical organogels.- Shear-induced polymer interactions and gelation in urea-formaldehyde polycondensates.- Gelation in reactive polyester powder coating systems.- Thermoreversible gelation in syndiotactic polystyrene/solvent systems.- The mechanical properties of elastomers with chemical and physical junctions.- Flourescence method to study gelation swelling and drying processes in gels formed by solution free radical compolymerization.- A 13C-NMR study of polyacrylic acid gels as radioactive ion sorbents.- Reaction, diffusion, electric conduction and determination of fixed ions in a hydrogel.- Experimental and theoretical investigation of static and dynamic chemical pattern formations in gels.- Hydrogel medicinal systems of prolonged action.- Hydrogels used for medicine and agriculture.- An experimental approach to the determination of two-dimensional gel-point: A film balance study.- Consolidation of porous structures by polyacrylic acid gels.- Kinetics of sorption processes in polymer gels.- Polymers for waste water treatment.