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WiSe 2015-2016 Soft Matter

Liquid crystal nematic phase

Liquid crystal nematic phase
Image Credit: CC

Target audience

Master Program Chemistry (Chemie) and Polymer Science, Course n° 21242.

Lecturers

S-Jun.-Prof. Annabelle Bertin (50%, annabelle.bertin@bam.de), Prof. Sebastian Seiffert (50%, seiffert@chemie.fu-berlin.de).

Language

English.

Credits

5 credits, 4 SWS.

Course starts on Monday 12.10.2015 and takes place Mondays, 2pm - 6pm, room 23.02. 

Exam and students participation

In the frame of the seminars (Übungen), during the first half of the semester (with Prof. Sebastian Seiffert), the students will be asked to present one experimental method that is important in the field of Soft Matter (AFM, DLS, Zeta-Potential, Rheology, etc; the talks should be prepared at home). During the second half of the semester (with Prof. Annabelle Bertin) the students will be asked to discuss reviews and publications as training for the exam and work in small groups (during the seminar itself).

The exam format will be a talk / ppt presentation about a recent publication (10-15 min) related to at least one of the topics studied during the course followed by 10-15 min questions by the two examiners, half on the topic of the publication, half on the lecture in general.

Outline
  • Introduction:
    What is soft matter? What are the general aspects of soft matter? Why is it important?
  • Fundamentals:
    Forces, energies, and timescales in soft matter, A brief intro to phase transitions
  • Polymers:
    Introduction to polymers, Ideal chains, Real chains, Polymer thermodynamics, Viscoelasticity
    Self-healing polymers, Shape memory polymers for biomedical applications
  • Gels:
    What is a gel? Percolation theory, Swelling
    Applications of (hydro)gels for biomedical applications
  • Amphiphiles: Self assembly of amphiphiles and block copolymers in bulk and solution (micelles, vesicles)
  • Colloids
  • Liquid crystals
  • Soft Matter in Nature
Book recommendations
  1. Introduction to Soft Matter: Synthetic and Biological Self-Assembling Materials, Revised Edition. Author: Ian W. Hamley. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2007, ISBN: 978-0-470-51609-6.
  2. Soft Condensed Matter. Author: Richard A. L. Jones. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002, ISBN: 978-0198505891.
  3. Polymers Physics. Authors: M. Rubinstein, Ralph H. Colby. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003, ISBN: 978-0198520597.