Preface
The field of polymer science is a very broad one, due to the fact that polymers are
ubiquitous. Polymers are used in every industry, from food industries where they
are used as food additives or make up the bulk of the food itself, the biomedical
industry where polymers are used as scaffolds for tissue regeneration to the energy
industries where they are used as the starting feedstock for bioethanol production or
as substrates in the new generation of solar cells. For this reason, there have been
numerous texts which present polymers in various forms.
A review of the literature shows that there are currently no books which focus on
polymers from the aquatic environment as a whole. While there are texts which look
at different polymers which can be sourced from the aquatic environment, none
of these texts have considered the polymers with a focus on the aquatic source. This
is of much important in present time as the aquatic environment continues to be
faced with different challenges from pollution to increased acidification. It is
important that while considering the production, application and processing of these
polymers that the environment from which they are obtained and the impact of the
process of extraction are also taken into consideration. This ensures that the future
polymer engineers, producers, suppliers and consumers have a broader understanding of polymers which includes the global economy and environment.
Lagos, Nigeria
Ololade Olatunji
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