Syllabus

(6 hrs) Polymer microstructure. Homopolymers and heteropolymers. Fractal nature of polymer conformations. Different types of polymeric substances. Molar mass distributions. Binary distributions. Linear condensation polymers. Linear addition polymers.

(8 hrs) Ideal chains: Conformations of an ideal chain. Different types of Ideal chain model. Radius of gyration of ideal linear and branched polymers. Kramers theorem. Distribution of end-to-end vectors. Entropy and free energy of an ideal chain.

(8 hrs) Polymer and solvent interaction. Good solvent and Poor solvent. Real chains. Mayer f-function and excluded volume. Non-spherical monomers. Flory theory for a polymer in good and poor solvents. Behaviour of ideal and real chains under tension. Temperature dependence of the chain size.

(6 hrs) Entropy of mixing for polymer solutions. Flory-Huggins equation. Phase diagrams.
Polymer gels. Elasticity of rubber. Chemical gels. Physical gels. Percolation Model. Classical theory of gelation. Swelling of gels in theta, athermal and good solvents.

(8 hrs) Molecular motion of polymers in dilute solution. Rouse model. Hydrodynamic interactions. Zimm model in theta conditions and good solvents. Viscoelasticity. Microscopic expression for the stress tensor, Intrinsic viscosity.

To introduce students to the concepts and applications of polymer physics.

To learn the concepts, configurations and statistical properties of polymer chains showing ideal behaviour.

To study the polymer-solvent interaction and real chain polymer behaviour.

To learn about the application of thermodynamics in polymer solution and gelation

To study the dynamics of polymers in dilute solution.

CO1: Students will be able to understand the basic principles of polymer physics.

CO2: Students will be able to learn the statistical and physical properties of ideal polymer chains.

CO3: Students will be able to distinguish the ideal and real polymer based on their behaviour and intermolecular interaction.

CO4: Students will learn about polymer and gelation which will help them to understand its wide application in industry.

CO5: Students will gain knowledge about the hydrodynamic interactions in the polymer context.

M. Rubinstein and R. H. Colby, Polymer Physics, Oxford University Press; First Edition (2003).

S. F. Sun, Physical Chemistry of Macromolecules: Basic Principles and Issues, Wiley; Second Edition (2004).

M. Doi and S. F. Edwards, The Theory of Polymer Dynamics, Clarendon press; First Edition (1986).

Ian W. Hamley, Introduction to Soft Matter: Synthetic and Biological Self-Assembling Materials, Wiley; Revised Edition (2007).

Paul J. Flory, Principles of Polymer Chemistry, Cornell University Press; First Edition (1953).

R. A. L. Jones, Soft Condensed Matter, Oxford University Press; First Edition (2002).