Symposium Editor, T.M. Birshtein
Wiley-VCH, 2003, pp. 1-200
ISBN 3-527-30695-1

> Contents

Preface

The International Symposium "Molecular Order and Mobility in Polymer Systems" was the fourth one in the series of similar St.-Petersburg IUPAC meetings on macromolecules held in 1994, 1996, and 1999, and organized by the institute of Macromolecular Compounds of the Russian Academy of Scientists (RAS). The Symposia of 1994 and 1999 were called "Molecular Mobility and Order in Polymer Systems", but those of 1996 and 2002 have the title "Molecular Order and Mobility in Polymer Systems". The main attention at these symposia was paid to the modem problems of the equilibrium state in polymer systems.

The co-organizers of the symposium were the Department of Chemistry and Material Science RAS and the Scientific Polymer Council RAS. The Symposium was sponsored by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) and St.-Petersburg Research Center of RAS.

33 invited lectures, 33 oral) communications and 260 poster presentations have been made at the Symposium. The abstracts of the presentations can be found in the Book of Abstracts.

The Symposium involved a very wide range of participants not in terms of the countries, universities and laboratories, but also the positions in polymer science, age and qualifications. Well-known active VIP researchers, including Nobel Prize Winner P.-G. de Gennes, three academicians of RAS : V. Kabanov, N. Platé, A. Khohlov; major scientists from Germany: G. Wegner, K. Kremer, M. Ballauff, C. Helm, E. Bartsch, A. Blumen; France: L. Leibler, A. Johner, C. Marques, F. Brochard-Wyart, Y. Gnanou, J. François; Japan: A. Abe; Canada: J. Noolandi, A. Eisenberg; USA: J. Mark, B. Shklovsky; Netherlands: G. Fleer, M. CohenStuart, M. Michels; Spain: J. Colmenero, R. Diaz-Calleja; Greece: S. Anastasiadis, P. Pissis; Sweden: P. Linse; Finland: H. Tenhu; Russia: T. Birshtein, Yu. Gotlib, A. Darinskii, Yu. Godovsky, A. Litmanovitch, E. Anufrieva, A. Semyonov, E. Zhulina and others held invited lectures. Many young scientists and students, taking their first steps in science, participated in the Symposium as authors of poster presentations.

This issue contains work by invited speakers. Unfortunately, not all of the speakers could present their work here since some materials had been published or submitted elsewhere. Nevertheless, it seems to us that this issue provides a more or less complete picture of the Symposium thematic.

One of the special parts of this Symposium was conducting two meetings in memory of an outstanding physicist M. V. Volkenshtein, dedicated to the 901 anniversary of his birth and to 10 years after his death. 20 years ago, when he was 70, M. V. Volkenshtein summarized the main results of his scientific career. This material was used as a basis for the introduction lecture of the memorial sessions and is published at the beginning of this issue.

The scientific work represented in this issue is divided in seven groups by its main thematic. Some work could be placed into several groups, which is also indicated.

It is worth mentioning that some of the publications differ from the presentations made by their authors at the Symposium, reflecting the results of the Symposium itself: lectures, oral and poster presentations and discussions, which were taking place with a great deal of enthusiasm from all participants.

One of these publications is a paper by P. G. de Gennes "Weak segregation in molten statistical copolymers", initiated in the course of discussion of an oral presentation by A. D. Litmanovich. A paper by N. Platé et al "Interplay of chemical and physical factors in reacting polymer blends. Theoretical considerations", representing a review of a large series of investigations, and a paper by P. Pissis (from now on we will name the main lecturer only) "Molecular order and dynamics in block copolymers of poly (oxybutylene) and poly (oxyethylene)" are placed in the same part (Copolymers and polymer blends). The papers by J. Noolandi "A meanfield approach to the thermodynamics of a protein-solvent system with application to the oligomerization of the tumor suppressor p53" (part II), T. Birshtein "Microphase coexistence in polymeric brushes" (part III), J. Mark "Elastomers with multimodal distributions of network chain lengths" and Yu. Gotlib "The relaxation spectra of polymer networks with different types of topology, ordering, heterogeneity" (part V) and A. Darinskii "Computer simulation of the liquid crystal formation in a semi-flexible polymer system" (part VII) are also done in the style of a review. Among the papers represented in this issue there is a comparatively small number of pure theoretical investigations (including computer modelling), among them are previously mentioned papers by P.-G. de Gennes, N. Platé, J. Noolandi, T. Birshtein, Yu. Gotlib, J. Mark and A. Darinskii as well as work by I. Neelov "Computer simulations of stretching and collapse of polymer molecules in solution" (part II), A. Johner "Adsorption of flexible polymers on small colloids: complexes and gels" (part IV), A. Blumen "Network models and their dynamics: probes of topological structure" (part V), M. Michels "Computer simulation study of bulk atactic polystyrene in the vicinity of the glass transition" (part VI). In the 7 parts represented in the issue, part III "Polymer brushes" is represented by a slightly larger number of papers than the other parts. In addition to a mentioned work by T. Birshtein, it includes three more works: F. Brochard-Wyart "Behavior of a nematic liquid near a grafted solid surface", M. Cohen-Stuart "When tethered chains meet free ones; the stability of polymer wetting films on polymer brushes" and M. Ballauff "Interaction of dissolved proteins with spherical polyelectrolyte brushes". These works are dedicated to an experimental study of the interactions between brushes and some external objects: nematic liquid crystals, free polymers and globular proteins, respectively. The experimental studies are accompanied by theoretical investigations in the first two works. The publication by J. François "Effects of temperature on neutron scattering from aqueous solutions of hydrophobically modified poly(ethylene oxide)" joins this part: the hydrophilic crown of a micelle represented in this work corresponds to a spherical brush. The work by A. Johner "Adsorption of flexible polymers on small colloids: complexes and gels" and V. Kabanov "Self-organization of ionic surfactants controlled by oppositely charged polyelectrolytes" are dedicated to an investigation of complexes that include neutral and charged polymer chains.

A comparatively small number of papers is devoted to bulk polymers, in addition to a mentioned theoretical work by M. Michels; these are experimental papers by E. Bartsch "Scale dependent diffusion in latex films studied by photoinduced grating relaxation technique" and R. Diaz-Calleja "Dielectric relaxations in polymers containing dioxacyclohexane rings by thermostimulated depolarization currents". Finally only one work is dedicated to the liquid-crystalline (LC) polymers (the mentioned theoretical (computer simulation) work by A. Darinskii), which considers polymer liquid crystals, though LC brushes are examined in the work by T. Birshtein and LC solvent in the work by F. Brochard-Wyard.

The contents of this issue reflect the progress of the investigators' interests towards more complicated systems with the elements of nanostructure organization. This trend will be more pronounced at the next 5th St. Petersburg Symposium "Molecular Mobility and Order in Polymer Systems" which is planned to take place in 2005.

T. M. Birshtein