Dirk Willem van Krevelen (8 November 1914, Rotterdam – 27 October 2001, Arnhem) was a prominent Dutch chemical engineer, coal and polymer scientist. He successfully combined an industrial career, managing a research division at DSM, and an academic one, as a professor of Delft Technical College. His contributions spanned a wide range of research fields, and his name is linked to the van Krevelen–Hoftyzer diagram for chemical gas absorption, the Mars–van Krevelen mechanism for catalytic oxidation reactions, the van Krevelen–Chermin method to estimate the free energy of organic compounds, the van Krevelen diagram that is used in coal and coal processes, the van Krevelen method to calculate additive properties of polymers, and the van Krevelen–Hoftyzer relationship on the viscosity of polymer fluids. He authored numerous scientific publications and several classic monographs, amongst which are Coal: Typology, Chemistry, Physics, Constitution and Properties of Polymers: Correlations with Chemical Structure. His name is retained in the author listing for the planned fifth edition for this book out of tribute to his vast contribution with the blessing of his son Laurens van Krevelen.Klaas te Nijenhuis is a retired Dutch physical chemist and researcher. His achievements include research into the viscoelasticity of thermoreversible polymer networks. He was a Researcher at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands from 1966 to 1979, then Lecturer from 1979 to 1986 and finally Associate Professor from 1986 until his retirement in 2003. He played a critical role in updating the book for its fourth edition and has kindly offered support and feedback to the new authors for this new fifth edition.

• Part I. General Introduction: A bird's-eye view of polymer science and engineering. Polymer properties. Typology of polymers. Typology of properties. History.Part II. Thermophysical properties of polymers. Volumetric properties. Calorimetric properties. Transition temperatures. Cohesive properties and solubility. Interfacial energy properties. Limiting viscosity number (intrinsic viscosity) and related properties of very dilute solutions. Part III. Properties of polymers in fields of force.Optical properties. Electrical properties. Magnetic properties. Mechanical properties of solid polymers. Acoustic properties.Part IV. Transport properties of polymers.Rheological properties of polymer melts. Rheological properties of polymer solutions. Transport of thermal energy. Properties determining mass transfer in polymeric systems. Crystallization and recrystallization.Part V. Properties determining the chemical stability and breakdown of polymers. Thermochemical properties. Thermal decomposition. Chemical degradation. Environmental failure.Part VI. Polymer properties as an integral concept.Intrinsic properties in retrospect. Processing properties. Product properties (I): mechanical behaviour and failure. Product properties (II): environmental behaviour and failure. An illustrative example of end use properties: article properties of textile products.Part VII. Comprehensive tables.International system of units (SI). Survey of conversion factors. Values of some fundamental constants. Physical constants of the most important solvents. Physical properties of the most important polymers. Published data on "high performance" polymers. Code symbols for the most important polymers. Trade names and generic names. Survey of group contributions in additive molar quantities. Symbol Index. Author Index. Subject Index.