CONTENTS vii 6.11 General Observations about Te and Tm 103 6.12 Effects of Crosslinking 103 6.13 Thermal Degradation of Polymers 103 6.14 Other Thermal Transitions 104 Problems 104 References 106 7 POLYMER SOLUBILITY AND SOLUTIONS 107 7.1 Introduction 107 7.2 General Rules for Polymer Solubility 107 7.3 Typical Phase Behavior in Polymer-Solvent Systems 109 7.4 The Thermodynamic Basis of Polymer Solubility 110 7.5 The Solubility Parameter 112 7.6 Hansen's Three-Dimensional Solubility Parameter 114 7.7 The Flory-Huggins Theory 116 7.8 Properties of Dilute Solutions 118 7.9 Polymer-Polmyer-Common Solvent Systems 121 7.10 Polymer Solutions,Suspensions,and Emulsions 121 7.11 Concentrated Solutions:Plasticizers 122 Problems 124 References 126 PART II.POLYMER SYNTHESIS 129 8 STEP-GROWTH(CONDENSATION)POLYMERIZATION 131 8.1 Introduction 131 8.2 Statistics of Linear Step-Growth Polymerization 132 8.3 Number-Average Chain Lengths 133 8.4 Chain Lengths on a Weight Basis 136 8.5 Gel Formation 137 8.6 Kinetics of Polycondensation 142 Problems 143 References 145 9 FREE-RADICAL ADDITION(CHAIN-GROWTH) POLYMERIZATION 146 9.1 Introduction 146 9.2 Mechanism of Polymerization 147 9.3 Gelation in Addition Polymerization 148 9.4 Kinetics of Homogeneous Polymerization 149 9.5 Instantaneous Average Chain Lengths 153