Meaning of structure in polymeric systems, comparison of biopolymer and synthetic polymers; self assembled materials (soap films, Langmuir films, cell membrane)

Meaning of stress and strain; Young’s modulus; stress strain of spider webs; comparison of mechanical properties of polymers and metals; common fibers (nylon, Kevlar); rubber elasticity; viscoelasticity; Lennard-Jones to calculate yield and Young’s modulus.

Viscosity; creep compliance; relaxation function; locking mechanisms (microphase separation, crosslink, crystal, glass, H-bond, gel) rotational potential energy

Use of statistics to explain nature; Quetelet’s average man; average from probability distribution; number average; weight average; polydispersity index

Example of condensation reactions (nylon, glucose); role of glucose in biology; extent of reaction; analysis of cond. reactions for average chain; Carother’s formula; Flory/Stockmayer formula; Walker analysis

Viscoelastic effects (open siphon and Weissenberg); scaling theory; gels; hydrogels; use of Carother’s and Flory/Stockmayer theories to predict gel point

Introduction of chemical kinetics using predator-prey equations; kinetics of condensation reactions; time dependence of extent of reaction; role of catalyst

Free radicals in biology and polymers; mitochondria; enzyme as catalyst; analysis of molecular weight from kinetics

Structure of chains; scaling theory; dilute to semi-dilute crossover; liquid-liquid phase separation; random walks; Brownian motion; self-avoiding random walks; traveling salesman problem

Entropy as measure of forward direction of time; entropy from heat flow or diffusion; chain end to end distribution from thermodynamics, statistical mechanics and Hooke’s Law

Prions to introduce single chain force-extension; relation between force-extension and free-energy; free energy description of rubber elasticity; viscoelasticity in peel test; time-temperature superposition; Vogel-Fulcher description of glass transition; Kuhn mapping to Gaussian chain

Surface volume ratio in biology and materials science; Free energy surface volume relations; Flory analysis of scaling of chain in good solvent; formal treatment of viscosity; non-Newtonian liquids; Krieger-Dougherty treatment of effect of filler on viscosity; Einstein viscosity equation; Mark-Houwink analysis of effect of chain length on viscosity

Inertial and viscous drag forces; Reynolds Number; Fick’s Law; Stokes-Einstein relation between diffusion coefficient and drag coefficient; stochastic treatment of diffusion; Rouse and Zimm models; reptation treatment of polymer viscosity

Divergence of viscosity; Vogel-Fulcher equation; Doolittle equation; Free volume; velocity autocorrelation function; caged particles; mode-coupling theory; energy landscape.