The nine review articles and roughly 30 contributed papers contained in this volume survey the present understanding of the molecular motion of polymers in concentrated solutions, melts and the amorphous state. Although the main emphasis is on results from neutron scattering experiments, about half of the contributions relate to complementary techniques such as light scattering and NMR. The book highlights three areas of active reseach that have received increasing attention in recent years. First, work on polymer relaxation near the glass transition and in glassy systems has shown that the application of different experimental techniques is indispensable due to the broad range of time scales over which these phenomena occur on a molecular level. Second, it is reported that the internal Brownian motion of long chain molecules and their diffusion in an entangled environment still does not have a generally accepted physical picture, although detailed insights into the microscopic motion have been obtained. Third, important progress has been made in unravelling the characteristics of phase separation of polymer blends, in which modifications to the ordinary laws of diffusion are of particular interest.

Autorentext
Dieter Richter, geboren 1938 in Hof, war bis 2004 Professor für Kritische Literaturgeschichte an der Universität Bremen und ist Autor zahlreicher, in Deutschland und Italien erschienener Bücher zur europäischen Kulturgeschichte. Er lebt in Bremen und ist Ehrenbürger von Amalfi. Für sein Buch »Der Süden. Geschichte einer Himmelsrichtung« erhielt er den NDR Kultur Sachbuchpreis 2009.

Inhalt
I Local Relaxation in Bulk Polymers.- Local Motions in Bulk Polymers.- Large Scale Motion Near the Glass Transition.- Local Relaxation in Polymer Glasses Studied by NMR.- Synchrotron-Excited Fluorescence Study of Local Dynamics in Bulk Polymers.- Secondary Relaxation in Glassy Polycyclohexylmethacrylate as Studied by Dynamic Light Scattering.- Dynamics of Solid Poly(methacrylate): An NMR Study.- Molecular Motions in n-Alkanes CnH2n+2 (n=19,23,24).- Conformationally Disordered Crystalline Phase in VF2-F3E Copolymers.- NMR, QENS and Conductivity Studies of the Anhydrous Polymer Protonic Conductor P(EO)(H3PO4)x.- II Time-Dependent Small Angle Scattering Experiments.- Diffusive Motion in Polymers as Studied by Time Resolved Small Angle Neutron Scattering.- Molecular Rheology of Polymer Melts Relaxation of Partially Labeled Chains.- Chain Conformation in Simple Elongational Flow.- Chain Molecule Diffusion in Glasses.- Time Resolved Neutron Scattering on Periodically Deformed Model Networks.- A Transient Experiment Using Elastic Scattering in Order to Observe Macromolecular Relaxation in Rubbers and Melts.- III Fast Fluctuations near the Glass Transition and in the Glassy State.- Density Fluctuations near the Glass Transition in Polymers and Low Molecular Weight Liquids.- Neutron Scattering Study of Relaxations and Vibrations in Molten Polyethylene.- Changes in the Incoherent Inelastic Scattering of Amorphous Polybutadiene near the Glass Transition.- Dynamics of the Glass Instability of a Molecular Glass as Observed by Incoherent Neutron Scattering.- IV Large Scale Brownian Motion.- Neutron Spin Echo Studies of Intramolecular Motion in Dense Polymer Systems.- Simulations of Restricted Polymer Diffusion.- Dynamic Properties of Entangled Polymers as Seen Through LightScattering Results.- A Generalized Rouse Theory for Entangled Polymeric Liquids.- Dynamic Properties of Entangled Polymeric Solutions: Quasielastic Light Scattering and Dynamic Mechanical Measurements.- Length Fluctuations in Entangled Polymers: Application to Partly Labelled Chains.- Effect of Crosslinking and Deformation on the Dynamics of Polymer Chains by the Neutron Spin Echo Technique.- Monte Carlo Simulation of Dense and Branched Polymers: The Bond Fluctuation Method.- Computer Simulation of Cooperative Motions in Condensed Polymer Systems Based on the Mechanism of Closed Loop Rearrangements.- Mutual Diffusion in Blends of Long and Short Entangled Polymer Chains.- NMR Approach to Disentanglement Relaxation in Molten Polymers.- Motion of Long Alkanes in Polyethylene Melts.- Towards an Equilibrium Theory of Liquid-Crystalline Polymers.- V Dynamics of Phase Separation in Polymer Blends.- Concentration Fluctuations and Phase Separation in Polymer Blends as Observed by X-Ray and Light Scattering.- Kinetics of Microphase Separation of Block Copolymers from Time Resolved Small Angle Neutron Scattering.- Prediction of Phase Separation Behaviour from Thermodynamic Measurements in Polymer Blends.- Concentration Fluctuations in Polymer Mixtures Under Shear Flow: A Phenomenological Theory.- Mutual Diffusion in the Poly(ethyleneoxide)/Poly(propyleneoxide) Mixture by Photon Correlation Spectroscopy.- Growth of Domains in a PVME/d-PS Polymer Blend by Small Angle Neutron Scattering.- Monte Carlo Simulation of Thermodynamic and Structural Properties of Polymer Mixtures Including Solvent.- Index of Contributors.