2024 Faculty Courses School of Science Department of Chemistry Graduate major in Energy Science and Informatics
Soft Materials Design
- Academic unit or major
- Graduate major in Energy Science and Informatics
- Instructor(s)
- Hidetoshi Matsumoto
- Class Format
- Lecture (Face-to-face)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 5-6 Fri
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- ESI.J407
- Number of credits
- 100
- Course offered
- 2024
- Offered quarter
- 2Q
- Syllabus updated
- Mar 14, 2025
- Language
- English
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
Organic materials includes a broad range of materials groups, phases, and morphologies form small- to macro-molecules. From the viewpoint of materials science and physical chemistry, this course deals with the relationship between nano-microscaled structural controlling of organic materials including multi-component systems and nanomaterials and their properties. In addition, this course introduces recent energy applications of organic materials for photoelectric conversion, thermoelectric conversion, and polymer electrolytes.
Course description and aims
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
1) Understand the characteristics and formation mechanism of condensed system, phase separation, crystal and amorphous structures, and network structure of solid polymers.
2) Understand the functional expression of solid polymers based on their characteristics and formation mechanism.
Keywords
Condensed polymer system, Multicomponent polymer system, Polymer crystal structure, Polymer amorphous structure, Polymer network Structure, Polymer nanomaterials，Polymer nanofibers
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
At the beginning of each class, the previous class is bleiefly reviewed. Before coming to class, students should read the course schedule and check what topics will be covered. Required learning should be completed outside of the classroom for preparation and review purposes.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Introduction of Softmaterials | Understand characteristics of softmaterials. |
| Class 2 | Solid state polymers - general and multi-component polymer system | Understand polymer chain behavior in the bulk, multi-component polymer system, and micro phase separation. |
| Class 3 | Solid state polymers - crystal structure | Understand polymer crystal structure and crystallization mechanism. |
| Class 4 | Solid state polymers - amorphous and others | Understand polymer amorphous structure and grass transition phenomenon. |
| Class 5 | Colloidal dispersions | Understand colloidal dispersions and DLVO theory. |
| Class 6 | Polymer Nanomaterials and Nanofibers | Understand polymer nanomaterials and polymer nanofibers. |
| Class 7 | Summary | Review the course contents |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
None required.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
Materials used in class can be found on T2SCHOLA.
Matsushita, Yushu Ed., Structural and Physical Properties of Polymers, Tokyo: Kodansha, ISBN: 978-4-06-154380-5. (Japanese)
Evaluation methods and criteria
Student's course scores are based on each quiz and a term-end report.
Related courses
- MAT.P421 ： Organic Materials Functional Design
Prerequisites
No prerequisites are necessary, but enrollment in the related courses is desirable.