Course syllabus

Course-PM

KBT026 Polymer chemistry and physics lp2 HT19 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Contact details

• examiner: Prof. Ergang Wang
• lecturer:

EW - Prof. Ergang Wang, room 8144, tel 031 772 3410, ergang@chalmers.se

AMP - Dr. Amir Masoud Pourrahimi, amirmas@chalmers.se

AH – Dr. Anna Hofmann, hofanna@chalmers.se

AL – Dr. Anja Lund, anja.lund@chalmers.se

• Tutorials:

  Sandra Hultmark, sanhul@chalmers.se

  Sepideh Zokaei, zokaei@chalmers.se

• lab assistants:

Lab 1: Eduardo Maurina Morais, maurina@chalmers.se

Lab 2: Ida Östergren, idaho@chalmers.se

Lab 3: Anna Peterson, anna.peterson@chalmers.se

Lab 4: Yingwei Ouyang, yingwei@chalmers.se

 

Course purpose

Aim

The course shall give deep and basic knowledge and understanding of the chemistry and physics of polymers. This includes especially the following polymer subjects: synthesis, characterisation, structure-properties relationships, and the physics of solutions and solid state.

Learning outcomes (after completion of the course the student should be able to)

1) describe the mechanism and characteristics of different polymerisation reactions
2) describe how different kinds of polymers can be synthesised on a laboratory as well as industrial scale
3) calculate the molecular weight of a polymer with regard to the composition of the feed of a polymerisation reaction
4) suggest analysis methods that permit to characterise the chemical and physical structure of polymers
5) explain the microstructure of polymers
6) describe physical properties of polymers in the melt and in the solid state
7) describe how materials properties are influenced by specific polymer structures
8) describe properties of semi-conducting polymers

Content

In general the lectures follow the outline of the course literature. The lecture themes are as follows:
1) introduction and basic principles
2) polymer synthesis (step-growth, radical, ionic, coordination and co-polymerisation)
3) polymers in solution
4) molar mass determination
5) structure determination
6) the crystalline state
7) the amorphous state
8) liquid-crystalline polymers
9) mechanical and dielectric properties
10) the elastomeric state
11) structure-property relationships
12) conjugated polymers

Schedule

TimeEdit

Lecture schedule

Date	Time	Lecture	Lecturer	Room
Mon 4/11	10-12	Introduction	EW	EF
Wed 6/11	10-12	Step growth polymerization	EW	EB
Mon 11/11	08-10	Radical polymerization	EW	EF
Tue 12/11	15-17	Radical cont. + Ionic polymerization	EW	EF
Mon 18/11	08-10	Copolymer synthesis	EW	EF
Wed 20/11	10-12	Stereochemistry, Coordination polymerization	EW	KA
Mon 25/11	10-12	Structure determination (NMR, IR)	EW	EF
Tue 26/11	15-17	Determination of molecular weight	EW	EA
Mon 2/12	08-10	The crystalline state	AMP	EF
Wed 4/12	10-12	The amorphous state	AMP	KB
Mon 9/12	08-10	Mechanical properties, Dielectric properties, Elastomeric state	AL	KC
Wed 11/12	10-12	Conjugated polymers	EW, AH	KA
Wed 11/12	13-15	Structure-property relations	AMP	KB
Wed 15/1	10-12	Reserved for Q&A	EW	8139
Thu 19/12	08-12	Seminar	all	FL61&71
Sat 18/1	14-18	Examination		tbd
Tue 4/2	12-13	Exam revision	all	Floor 8, library

 

Tutorial schedule

Date	Time	Topic:
Mon 11/11 EF	10-12	Mw, Mn, Step-growth polymerization
Wed 13/11 KB	10-12	Chain-growth polymerization
Mon 18/11 EF	10-12	Copolymerization
Wed 27/11 KB	10-12	Molecular weight and Structure determination
Mon 2/12 EF	10-12	Polymer solutions and blends
Mon 9/12 KC	10-12	Crystalline State and Mechanical properties
Tue 17/12 EF	15-17	Q&A

Assistants: Sandra Hultmark, sanhul@chalmers.se; Sepideh Zokaei, room 8152, zokaei@chalmers.se

 

Course literature

J.M.G. Cowie: Polymers: Chemistry & Physics of Modern Materials (Third edition). (can be purchased from Cremona).

Some additional materials will be handed out at certain lectures.

A list of materials that can be read rapidly, see below.

Text for rapid reading (third edition)

Please see the attached pdf in "Files".

additional link for reading

http://old.iupac.org/polyedu/

https://www.doitpoms.ac.uk

 

Course design

The course includes 14 lectures, 7 tutorials, and a laboratory course with 4 laboratory exercises. The results from the lab course will be discussed in a compulsory seminar at the end of the course.

Lab information

The laboratory course is divided into 5 occasions, approximately 4 h each. The laboratory work is scheduled to Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning but one occasion on Friday morning. The first laboratory exercise involves the synthesis of a polymer which is analyzed at subsequent occasions. Prior to the laboratory work the manual must be carefully studied, something which will be controlled at discussions during each lab. A short description of the laboratory exercises follows below:

 

• Lab 1: Polymerization. Synthesis of two different polymers; polystyrene, and a copolymer of styrene and methyl acrylate.
  Room: Kurshuset, level 4, room 4143.

Lab assistant: Eduardo Maurina Morais, maurina@chalmers.se

 

• Lab 2: Molecular weight determination. Your own polystyrene sample will be analyzed using Size Exclusion Chromatography (SEC), a method that determines the molecular weight distribution and average molecular weights of polymers. A part of the laboratory time will be used to make samples for the DMA-measurements in lab 3.
  Room: assembly in the Polymer Library 8139, Kurshuset, floor 8

Lab assistant: Ida Östergren, idaho@chalmers.se

 

OBS!!! The sample must be dissolved at least 1 hour PRIOR TO the laboratory exercise (this will be done by Anders Mårtensson). Do not forget to measure the weight (to be able to calculate the yield) before you take a sample for the SEC measurement!

 

• Lab 3: Determination of T_g. Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) will be used to determine T_g (the glass transition temperature).
  Room: assembly in the Polymer Library 8139, Kurshuset, floor 8

 

Lab assistant: Anna Peterson, anna.peterson@chalmers.se

 

OBS!!! Your samples must be prepared PRIOR TO the laboratory exercise, there will be time dedicated to this during lab 2.

• Lab 4: NMR and FTIR. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) and Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) will be used to determine the reactivity ratios of the copolymerization in lab 1.
  Room: The conference room 8162, Polymer Technology.
  
  

Lab assistant: Yingwei Ouyang, yingwei@chalmers.se

 

• Seminar: The lab course will be concluded with a seminar. The results from all of the laboratory groups will be demonstrated and discussed at a seminar Thursday, December 19, between 8-12. The first three hours will be dedicated to a group discussion regarding the results, as well as a few distributed questions, and a short presentation will be prepared. The presentations will take place between 11-12.

Room: Start in FL61

information added on 2019-12-18

We start at FL61 at 8:00.

I will tell you which question your lab group needs to present in the beginning.

And then you have 15 min to prepare. Ideally the presentation is limited to 5 min.

After that I will hand out the question part II with 3 questions. You need to solve all questions.

Group 1 and 2 can stay in FL 61 and group 3 and 4 move to FL71 for discussion.

I will be around to help.

 

We will have Fika at 10:00.

I will tell you which question your group needs to present at 10:30.

We will start the presentation at FL61 at 11:00.

 

OBS!!! The seminar is s a compulsory part of laboratory course!

 

Laboratory schedule

 

	Group (I,II,III,IV,V,VI)
time/group	I	II	III	IV	V	VI
Wed 13/11 13-17	1
Thu 14/11 8-12		1
Wed 20/11 13-17	2		1
Thu 21/11 8-12	3	2		1
Thu 28/11 8-12	4	3	2
Fri 29/11 8-12		4	3	2
Wed 4/12 13-17			4	3
Thu 5/12 8-12				4
Thu 19/12 8-12	Seminar, FL61 (FL71)

Note: The labs on week 48 is on Thursday and Friday morning.

 

Student representatives

   MPMCN       anderel@student.chalmers.se     Elin Andersson
    MPMCN       jalilian@student.chalmers.se    Raha Hasani Jalilian
    MPMCN       mitra_kaeni@yahoo.com   Mitra Kaeni Moghadam
    MPMCN       ajsa@student.chalmers.se        Ajsa Sedic

 

minutes for mid-course meeting on 25/11, 2019

1. It is good to give overview of the questions we are going to study in the beginning of the tutorials.
2. It is good to have more details of some questions in tutorials.
3. The course was well constructed, but some lectures are a bit rush in order to completed on time. This is hard to change and get a good balance. As a compensation, I will write down annotation for some slides and upload it. 
4. It was noticed the seminar is on the same day with another course exam. It is difficult to move the date for seminar, but we will send the lab results and first part of the questions on 5/12, so that you can try to solve the questions well in advance.

 

Changes made since the last occasion

Reduce the content about polymer in solution.

 

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.

Study plan

 

Examination form

A written examination will take place Saturday 18^th of January 2020, 14.00-18.00.