This unit introduces the physics of molecular and macromolecular condensed phases such as liquids, glasses, liquid crystals, plastic and orientationally disordered crystals, polymers and polymer gels.
Course syllabus:
(1) Basics of molecular condensed matter:
introduction (polymorphism, glasses, complex fluids: mesophases & polymers); classification and mechanism of phase transitions (first order, continuous, glassy; nucleation and growth); van der Waals theory; microscopic constituents, effective interactions, disorder & dynamics; experimental tools & linear response theory; Boltzmann distribution and partition function
(2) Single component systems: structural glasses, primary and secondary relaxations, aged and stable glasses; orientationally disordered solids and plastic crystals; amorphous and semicrystalline linear polymers; rotational isomeric state model; ideal chains and entanglement, normal and segmental relaxations; viscoelasticity; polymers networks, gelation and rubber elasticity; conjugated and conductive polymers; thermotropic liquid crystals and liquid crystal polymers)
(3) Introduction to binary systems and binary equilibrium and non-equilibrium phase diagrams: heterointeractions; glass-forming mixtures; binary plastic crystals; polymer blends, solutions, and dispersions; block copolymers; polymer gels and hydrogels, swelling; superhydrophobic, superhydrophilic/olephobic, superamphiphilic, and self-healing polymer coatings. Self-assembly in condensed matter: biopolymers, helix-coil & coil-globule transitions; surfactant-water systems, biomembranes, lyotropic liquid crystals, emulsions; semiflexible polymers & cytoskeleton; colloidal systems (glasses, crystals, nematics, gels);
Applications to drug encapsulation, controlled drug release, and drug delivery.