2025 (Current Year) Faculty Courses School of Materials and Chemical Technology Undergraduate major in Chemical Science and Engineering

Crosslinking Reactions

Academic unit or major: Undergraduate major in Chemical Science and Engineering
Instructor(s): Reiko Saito
Class Format: Lecture (Face-to-face)
Media-enhanced courses: -
Day of week/Period (Classrooms): 3-4 Wed
Class: -
Course Code: CAP.Y303
Number of credits: 100
Course offered: 2025
Offered quarter: 2Q
Syllabus updated: Mar 19, 2025
Language: Japanese

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

Gels are important soft-materials.
This course focuses on the crosslinking of polymers, which is an important method to synthesize gel, and on the properties of gels. Topics include crosslinking between polymer and low molecular compounds, polymer and polymer, direct synthetic reactions of gel from monomers, Flory's gelation theory Carothers equation, the properties of gels and thermodynamics of swelling of gels. The course enables students to understand and design of crosslinking for gels.

Course description and aims

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
1) Explain the principles of crosslinking of polymer.
2) Understand the properties of gels synthesized via crosslinking.
3) Acquire the relationship between crosslinking and properties of gel.
4) Obtain gel point and design the crosslinking system for certain gel.

Keywords

Crosslinking, gel, gel point, polymer complex, swelling.

Competencies

Specialist skills
Intercultural skills
Communication skills
Critical thinking skills
Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

Towards the end of class, students are given exercise problems related to what is taught on that day to solve.
Before coming to class, students should read the course schedule and check what topics will be covered.

Course schedule/Objectives

	Course schedule	Objectives
Class 1	Introduction, What is gel?	Understand gel and the classification of gel
Class 2	Crosslinking of polymers with low molecular compounds -Synthesis of gel with polymer and low molecular compounds-	Understand the basic reaction concept and the design of reaction system.
Class 3	Crosslinking of polymers with polymers -Polymer complex-	Understand the reaction concept between polymers and explain polymer complex.
Class 4	Crosslinking during polymerization -Synthesis of gel from monomers-	Explain the architectures of gels from r1 and r2
Class 5	Gel pint -Flory's gelation theory and Carothers equation-	Calculate the gel point based on Flory's gelation theory and Carothers equation
Class 6	Swelling of Gel	Explain the swelling behavior of gel thermodynamically.
Class 7	Summery and examination	Summarize the crosslinking and gel, Examination

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)

(Japanese) 基礎高分子科学（第２版）　高分子学会編　（東京化学同人）　ISBN: 9784807909629

Reference books, course materials, etc.

Young ＆Lovell "INTRODUCTION TO POLYMERS" CCR Press, ISBN: 978-0-8493-3929-5,
Odian "Principales of polymerization" Wiley ISBN-13: 978-8126513918，
(Japanese) 中濱精一ほか「エッセンシャル高分子科学」講談社サイエンティフィク ISBN-10: 406153310X，
(Japanese) 高分子学会編「高分子科学の基礎」東京化学同人　ISBN-10: 4807904051

Evaluation methods and criteria

Students' knowledge of design of crosslinking, the properties of gel ad the relationship between synthesis method and the properties of gels, the calculation of gel points and their ability to apply them to design of gel.
Final exam (80%), exercise problems (20%).

Related courses

CAP.Y201 ： Polymer Chemistry Basics
CAP.Y202 ： Polymer Synthesis I (Step-Growth Polymerization)
CAP.Y203 ： Polymer Synthesis II (Chain Polymerizaiton)
CAP.Y301 ： Polymer Reactions

Prerequisites

Students must have enough knowledge of Polymer chemistry I-II, Organic chemistry, polymer physics and basic thermodynamics.