Book excerpt: Plasma Polymerization aims to bridge the conceptual gap between the academic and practical approaches to plasma polymerization and highlights the significance of plasma polymerization in materials science and technology. The major topics covered are gas-phase kinetics, ionization of gases, fundamentals of polymerization, mechanism of polymer formation in plasma, competitive aspects of polymer formation and ablation, mechanism of polymer deposition, operational factors of plasma polymerization, and electrical properties of plasma polymers. This book is comprised of 11 chapters and begins with a brief overview of plasma polymerization and its growing importance for the formation of entirely new kinds of materials. The discussion then shifts to a comparison between plasma-state polymerization and plasma-induced polymerization, between plasma polymerization and graft polymerization, and between plasma polymerization and radiation polymerization. The reader is also introduced to fundamental aspects of gas-phase reactions, paying particular attention to the classical kinetic theory of gas, as well as the mechanisms of formation of polymeric materials in plasma, competitive ablation and polymer formation in plasma, and polymer deposition in plasma polymerization. The operational parameters of plasma polymerization are described and a chapter devoted to the electrical properties of plasma-polymerized thin organic films concludes the book. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of material science.