quite convincing and they show the merit of the theoretical approach described in Chapter 4. The electrostatic effects with charged interfaces and polyelectrolyte adsorption are described in Chapter 7. This topic is more difficult to tackle theoretically than the case for neutral polymers on uncharged surfaces. At best the theories can describe the general trends of polyelectrolyte adsorption.
Chapter 8 deals with a specific topic of terminally attached polymers, which the authors consider to be different since one end of the chain is chemically bound to the surface. Adsorption at the air/liquid and liquid/liquid interfaces is dealt with in Chapter 9. This chapter is quite short and it reflects the lack of information on the topic both from theoretical and experimental points of view. The question of depletion layers at interfaces (for a nonadsorbing polymer) is dealt with in Chapter 10, which again is quite short. The final chapter deals with interaction between particles in the presence of polymer (both adsorbing and nonadsorbing). I have the impression that the authors wrote the last few chapters in a hurry. This is a drawback, although it does not by any means diminish the value of the book.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the text and found it very useful for obtaining fundamental understanding of the subject. However, I very much doubt if researchers in industry can have the time to go into such detail, particularly in the theory section. Thus, this book will be of much value for fundamental research at universities. However, I still can recommend the book for libraries in major industrial research laboratories, besides the universities and research institutes. It is a very well written text and the authors took a great deal of care in analysing both the theory and experimental methods on polymer adsorption and conformation at interfaces.