Polymer Degradation and Stability deals with the degradation reactions and their control which are a major preoccupation of practitioners of the many and diverse aspects of modern polymer technology.
Deteriorative reactions occur during processing, when polymers are subjected to heat, oxygen and mechanical stress, and during the useful life of the materials when oxygen and sunlight are the most important degradative agencies. In more specialised applications, degradation may be induced by high energy radiation, ozone, atmospheric pollutants, mechanical stress, biological action, hydrolysis and many other influences. The mechanisms of these reactions and stabilisation processes must be understood if the technology and application of polymers are to continue to advance. The reporting of investigations of this kind is therefore a major function of this journal.
However there are also new developments in polymer technology in which degradation processes find positive applications. For example, photodegradable plastics are now available, the recycling of polymeric products will become increasingly important, degradation and combustion studies are involved in the definition of the fire hazards which are associated with polymeric materials and the microelectronics industry is vitally dependent upon polymer degradation in the manufacture of its circuitry. Polymer properties may also be improved by processes like curing and grafting, the chemistry of which can be closely related to that which causes physical deterioration in other circumstances.
Radiation of various kinds is used to initiate many of these modern technological processes so that polymer photochemistry has come to a new prominence and finds a major place in this journal.
The study of all these processes has made extensive use of modern instrumental analytical methods and the various spectrometric, chromatographic and thermal analysis techniques have been particularly prominent.
There is clearly a strong common bond between investigations in various parts of the field. Polymer Degradation and Stability provides a forum for the publication of their work.
Editorial board
Editors-in-Chief
- Jean-Luc Gardette
Institut de Chimie de Clermont-Ferrand, Equipe Photochimie, Université Blaise Pascal, Campus des Cézeaux, 63170, Aubière, France
Editors for General Degradation
- Jean-Luc Gardette
Université Blaise Pascal, Aubière, France - James Pickett
Editor for Biodegradable and Bio-based Polymers
- Tadahisa Iwata
The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-Ku, Japan
Editor for Fire Retardants and Nanocomposites
- Bernhard Schartel
Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und Prüfung (BAM), Berlin, Germany
Honorary Editor-in-Chief
- Norman Billingham
University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, UK
Editor Emeritus
Editorial Board
- Hideki Abe
RIKEN Advanced Science Institute, Wako, Japan - Ann-Christine Albertsson
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden - Norman Allen
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK - Sahar Al-Malaika
Aston University, Birmingham, UK - Serge Bourbigot
Ecole Nationale Superieure de Chimie de Lille, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France - Pierangiola Bracco
University of Torino, Torino, Italy - Mat Celina
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA - Emo Chiellini
Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy - Xavier Colin
Arts et Metiers ParisTech, Paris, France - John Colwell
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia - Ulf Gedde
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden - Jean-François Gérard
Université de Lyon, Villeurbanne, France - Peter Gijsman
DSM, Geleen, Netherlands - Alfonso Jimenez
University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain - Francesco La Mantia
Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy - Andrea Labouriau
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA - Pierre-Yves Le Gac
Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), Plouzané, France - James P. Lewicki
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California, USA - Giulio Malucelli
Politecnico di Torino, Alessandria, Italy - Haruo Nishida
Kyushu Institute of Technology, Kitakyushu, Japan - William Starnes
College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA - Matija Strlic
University College London (UCL), London, UK - Yuya Tachibana
Gunma University, Kiryu, Japan - Yoshikuni Teramoto
Gifu University, Gifu, Japan - Sandrine Therias
ICCF (UMR CNRS6296 UCA-Sigma-Clermont), France - Yuzhong Wang
Sichuan University, Chengdu, China - Rongjie Yang
Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China - Rui Yang
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China