Polyrotaxane is a necklace-like supramolecule in which many cyclic molecules are threaded into a single polymer chain and can be cross-linked to produce functional polymeric materials. The resulting materials have movable cross-linking giving unique properties different from other polymer networks with fixed covalent bonds gaining much attention for new films, elastomers and coatings.

Polyrotaxane and Slide-Ring Materials is the first book to cover the fundamentals and applications of these molecules and materials. After a general introduction, the first part of the book covers the thermodynamics of inclusion complex formation and sliding transition in polyrotaxane, followed by different synthesis techniques of polyrotaxane and slide-ring materials. The book then addresses different scattering methods for structural analysis followed by chapters on the electric and optical properties of polyrotaxane as well as the mechanical and thermodynamic properties of slide-ring materials. The final part of the book contains different chapters on their applications including gels elastomers and resins.

Authored by the inventor of slide-ring materials, it will appeal to students, researchers, and engineers in supramolecular chemistry, polymer chemistry and polymer physics.