POLYMER
STRUCTURE, PHYSICAL PROPERTIES AND CHARACTERIZATION
CHE/ME/MSE/TFE 6768
Course coordinator: Dr.
A. S. Abhiraman (ChE)
Prerequisites:
CHEM/CHE/ME/MSE/TFE 4776, and Graduate standing or consent
of instructor
Proposed Catalog Description:
Formulations and analysis of molecular and phenomenological
models of elastic and viscoelastic behavior, development and description of
structure, and fundamental aspects of structure-property relations in the solid
state of polymers.
Course Justification:
The learning objectives for the course are as follows:
1.
Learn phenomenological and molecular models of phase
transitions in bulk polymers
2.
Learn molecular and phenomenological models of rubber elasticity
and viscoelasticity
3.
Learn the foundations of structure-property relations in
anisotropic bulk polymers
4.
Prepare students for research in the field of polymer
process-structure-property relationships
The course will
demonstrate the importance of sound principles in physics and chemistry
to model polymers through examples of proper approaches as well as some (widely
practiced) mistakes in the field. It will
make extensive use of current literature and show connections between
phenomenological and molecular approaches. The course materials have been
refined and taught at Georgia Tech for 15+ years as parts of two courses.
Text: No suitable
single text exists. The books listed below will be used as references. These
will be supplemented with papers from literature.
Ward & Hadley: An introduction to the mechanical
properties of solid polymers; Bueche: Physical
properties of polymers; Treloar: Physics
of rubber elasticity; Flory: Statistical
mechanics of chain molecules; Ferry: Viscoelastic
properties of polymers; Aklonis, et al.: An
introduction to viscoelasticity in polymers;
Schultz: Polymer materials science.
Topical Outline
1. Structure and states
A review of
structure and physical states of polymers
2. Conformations and spatial configurations: Principles and
models
Review of
equilibrium and statistical thermodynamics; partition functions for polymer
chains; freely orienting chain analogs for flexible polymer chains
3. Rubber elasticity: Advanced Models
1-, 2-, and 3-D
models of elasticity in isolated chains; single chain to network extensions;
non-ideal rubbers
4. Viscoelasticity
a. linear viscoelasticity and
superposition
b. time-temperature superposition
of modulus and viscosity functions
c. experiments in viscoelasticity
d. viscoelastic transitions and
structure
e. molecular origins of
viscoelastic behavior of polymers
f. nonlinear models
5. Fundamental Aspects of Process-Morphology Relations
a. thermodynamics of
melting/crystallization
b. kinetics and modes of crystal
growth
c. energetics of crystal
nucleation phenomena
d. process - morphology relations
(phase separating transitions in solutions and bulk polymers; flow and
orientation; crystallization in anisotropic polymers; stress field and
crystallization; crystallization in copolymers and blends)
6. Principles and techniques for analysis of anisotropy in
polymers
principles
governing birefringence, sonic pulse propagation and infra-red dichroism
7. Structure-mechanical property relations
two- and three-
phase models of polymer morphology and physical properties
8. Viscosity and Diffusion in Polymers
segmental jumps,
viscosity and diffusion in polymers
9. Special Topics
students’
research reports on current literature