The literature in polymerization reaction engineering has bloomed
sufficiently in the last several years to justify our attempt in putting
together this book. Rather than offer a comprehensive treatment of the
entire field, thereby duplicating earlier texts as well as some ongoing
bookwriting efforts, we decided to narrow down our aim to step growth
polymerization systems. This not only provides us the lUxury of a more
elaborate presentation within the constraints of production costs, but
also enables us to remain on somewhat familiar terrain. The style and
format we have selected are those of a textbook. The first six chapters
present the principles of step growth polymerization. These are quite
general, and can easily be applied in such diverse and emerging fields
as polymerization applications in photolithography and microelec-
tronics. A detailed discussion of several important step growth
polymeriz- ations follows in the next five chapters. One could cover the
first six chapters of this book in about six to eight weeks of a
three-credit graduate course on polymerization reactors, with the other
chapters assigned for reading. This could be followed by a discussion of
chain-growth and other polymeriz- ations, with which our material blends
well. Alternately, the entire contents of this book could be covered in
a course on step growth systems alone.