COURSE OUTLINE:

Week 1: Introduction

- What are polymers?

- What is polymer science?

- Basic definitions

Week 2 and 3: Polymer synthesis

- Step-growth polymarization

- Chain-growth polymarization

- Contrast between chain- and step-growth polymerizations

- Free radical polymarization

- Living polymarization

- Kinetics of polymarization

Week 4: Statistics of polymerizations

- Molecular weights and their distributions

- Polymer condensates

- Theory of gelation

Test 1

Week 5: Copolymerization

- Copolymer equation

- Copolymer sequences

- Application of probability theory

Week 6 and 7: Microstructure

- Determination of polymer microstructure-NMR spectroscopy

- Connecting polymer microstructures with their NMR spectra

- Conformations and configurations of polymer chains

- Random walks and random flights

- Polymer morphology

- Polymer fibers

Week 8 and 9: Crystallization, melting and the glass transition

- Review of basic thermodynamics

- Some statistical mechanics

- The crystalline melting temperature

- Kinetics of polymer crystallization: nucleation

- The glass transition

Test 2

Week 10 and 11: Thermodynamics of polymer solutions and blends

- Polymer excluded volume

- The free energy of mixing

- Flory-Huggins theory

- Phase separation

- Theta solvents and intrinsic viscosity

- Osmotic pressure

Week 12 and 13: Mechanical and rheological properties

- Stress-strain behavior

- Viscosity of polymer melts

- Viscoelasticity: some simple models

- Relaxation in polymers

- Time-temperature superposition principle

- Non-linear behavior: capillary flow, crazing and yielding

Test 3

Week 14 and 15: Naturally occurring biopolymers

- Polysaccharides

- Polypeptides and proteins

- Poly(Nucleic Acids)

- DNA-directed protein synthesis

- DNA replication and transcription