Course Offerings: Polymer

Synthesis of polymers with well-defined structures in terms of their architectures, chemical compositions, molecular weight etc. is a major concern of polymer chemistry. A number of polymerization techniques, such as anionic polymerization, living free radical polymerization, ring opening metathesis polymerization, have been developed and intensively researched in recent years. Consequently, polymer structure and property engineering has become possible, which extend the scope of material ...

Basic definitions: Monomers, polymers, polymerization reactions. Polymer structure, nomenclature. Molecular weight distributions and average molecular weights. Chain conformations: End-to-end distance, radius of gyration, molecular dimensions, excluded volume. Molecular weight measurements: Colligative properties, osmometry, light scattering, viscosity, gel permeation chromatography. Step-growth polymerization. Types of reactions. Reactivity, kinetics. ...

The course starts with an introduction to the design and synthesis of polymers with define chemical structures. A number of polymerization techniques will be descried briefly, including anionic, living free radical and migration insertion polymerizations. The principles guiding self-assembly behaviour of block copolymers and other building blocks will be discussed, followed by the material applications of the assembled polymeric ...