Allcock publishes new materials chemistry textbook

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Harry R. Allcock, Penn State Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry, is the author of a new textbook, titled "Introduction to Materials Chemistry," which has been published by John Wiley & Sons. The 432-page book is a qualitative overview of the fundamental areas of materials science. It is designed to serve as a starting point for students who have no previous experience in materials science and also to encourage readers to delve more deeply into specific topics. While textbooks about materials science traditionally are written from an engineering/physics perspective, Allcock's book is written from a chemistry perspective and is not mathematics-based.

For several years, Allcock has taught a course in materials chemistry, which is taken by students in the first year of their graduate program in chemistry and by undergraduates in chemistry and related fields. He also conducts research at the interface between inorganic and organic chemistry, polymer chemistry, and materials science. In particular, his research involves the design and synthesis of new polymers that contain organic components, together with heteroelements such as phosphorus, silicon, boron, or transition metals. He was the discoverer of a major class of polymers known as polyphosphazenes, which can be customized for use in fuel cells, flame retardants, and medical prostheses, among other things. He also discovered a new class of molecular-inclusion compounds known as clathrates, which have been used to separate a wide variety of small organic molecules and high polymers, and which also serve as nanoscale templates for addition polymerizations.