Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers

This book has its origins in courses taught by the author to various und- graduate and graduate students at the Indian Institute of Technology, K- pur, India. The diversity of inorganic chemistry and its impact on polymer chemistry has been profound. This subject matter has grown considerably in the last decade and the need to present it in a coherent manner to young minds is a pedagogic challenge. The aim of this book is to present to the students an introduction to the developments in Inorganic and - ganometallic polymers. This book is divided into eight chapters. Chapter 1 provides a general overview on the challenges of Inorganic polymer synthesis. This is f- lowed by a survey of organic polymers and also includes some basic f- tures of polymers. Chapters 3-8 deal with prominent families of inorganic and organometallic polymers. Although the target group of this book is the undergraduate and graduate students of chemistry, chemical engineering and materials science it is alsohoped that chemists and related scientists in industry would find this book useful. I am extremely thankful to my wife Sudha who not only encouraged me throughout but also drew all the Figures and Schemes of this book. I also thank my children Adithya and Aarathi for their constant concern on the progress of this book. I express my acknowledgment to the editorial team of Springer-Verlag for their cooperation.