Undergraduate Course: Macromolecular Physics (PHYS11014)
Course Outline
| School | School of Physics and Astronomy |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | Macromolecular Physics, or 'Soft Condensed Matter' is a rapidly growing area of physics in which the School has a large research effort. Soft matter describes materials in states of matter that are neither simple liquids or crystalline solids, and covers many materials familiar to everyday life. The course will emphasise the basic physics of colloidal systems (microscopic particles suspended in a liquid), of polymers (large flexible 'macromolecules') and of self-assembling systems such as surfactants. In many cases surprisingly simple models provide accurate descriptions of seemingly complex phenomena; for example, a simple 'random walk' describes both the Brownian motion of colloids and the shapes of polymer molecules. During the course examples will be drawn from biological systems and materials where possible. |
| Course description |
- Material properties of gases, liquids and solids; atomic and molecular interactions
- Phase transitions and phase diagrams
- Viscous, elastic and viscoelastic behaviour of materials
- Glasses and the glass transition
- Liquid-liquid demixing and the regular solution model
- Interfaces and the kinetics of phase transitions: spinodal decomposition; homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation
- Colloidal dispersions: Brownian motion of colloids; intercolloidal forces; colloidal phase behaviour
- Polymeric materials
- Statistics of polymer chains
- Polymer viscoelasticity
- Self-assembly of amphiphilic molecules
- Self-assembly of polymers
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Upon successful completion of this course it is intended that a student will be able to:
1) demonstrate an understanding of phase behaviour and phase transitions in soft matter
2) explain Brownian motion in the framework of the Einstein equation
3) discuss the behaviour of interacting colloidal particles
4) discuss the properties of polymers and derive the main models to describe their behaviour
5) demonstrate an understanding of self-assembly
6) demonstrate a grasp of the order of magnitude of the central quantities and develop confidence with "intuitive" estimates as well as calculations based on concepts presented in this course
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Additional Information
| Course URL |
Learn |
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Macro |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Rosalind Allen
Tel: (0131 6)51 7197
Email: rosalind.allen@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Dawn Hutcheon
Tel: (0131 6)51 5958
Email: Dawn.Hutcheon@ed.ac.uk |
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