Metal-Containing Polymers

Dear Colleagues,

There is a great need for materials that behave in new and specific ways.  These materials will be the materials for the 21st century that allow us to answer critical needs present in the environment, communication, biomedicine, transportation, etc.  Of the about 120 elements, less than 25 are non-metals.  These elements are generally cited as being metals or metal-like.  These metals exhibit a number of oxidative states, geometries, and bonding allowing a tailoring in properties that are not present in most traditional polymeric materials. While the advent of metal-containing polymeric materials  is relatively new, they have already found use in communications, lithography, catalysis, biomedicine, smart materials, conductors, piezoelectronics, electrodes, solar energy conversion, pyroelectronics, lasers, nonlinear optics, semiconductors, radiology agents, contrast agents,  etc.

This journal edition features a variety of metal-containing materials where the presence of the metal is important to the overall or specific properties and where the material, if soluble, would be polymeric.  This includes dendrimers and hyper-branched materials.

Prof. Dr. Charles E. Carraher, Jr.
Guest Editor