Plastics and Polymers - A Material Class Shaping the World

Aspects regarding the architecture and polymerization reaction concepts will be covered. You will be able to understand what makes this material class so versatile.

This lecture teaches key takeaways about the molecular weight as well as facts about polymer chain flexibility.

You will learn how Size Exclusion Chromatograhy (SEC) can be used to determine the molecular weight of a polymer.

This lecture covers how Mass Spectrometry can be used to characterize polymers.

You will get an introcution into how viscosity can tell you about how polymers interact with the solvent around them.

This lecture will serve as an introduction to the morphology of polymers and their thermal properties.

Students will learn how Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) can be used to learn about the morphology and thermal properties of polymers.

This lecture will cover the characteristics of radical polymerization as well as the key steps of the reaction mechanism.

Students will learn about common initiators and monomers for this kind of polymerization.

We will discuss reaction kinetics and key dependencies from reactant concentrations.

This is an optional lecture going into more detail to derive the corresponding kinetic equations.

You will learn about the concept of Kinetic Chain Length and its meaning for the prediction of the degree of polymerization.

We will discuss various chain transfer reaction which can occur during radical polymerization.

This lecture will connect to the previous one and show how the transfer reactions impact the chain length.

You will be introduced to Copolymerization diagrams and how to use them.

We will talk about common shapes of Copolymerization diagrams and derive what practical implications they bear.

This is an optional lecture which covers the details of the Mayo-Lewis equation as the foundation of Copolymerization diagram calculations.

Here we will cover characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of Bulk Polymerization.

Further technical polymerization processes will be introduces within this chapter.

You will learn about important polymers commonly produced via radical polymerization.

Here you will get to know what makes ionic polymerization special.

The lecture covers various initiators, monomers as well as the mechanistic steps of anionic polymerization.

Here we will discuss the kinetics of this polymerization and compare it with previous ones.

You will learn what kind of architectures the anionic polymerization enables.

This chapter will continue to cover various architectures obtainable by anionic polymerization.

We will discuss different material classes and discuss an example with special properties due to anionic polymerization design.

You will learn how the cationic polymerization proceeds and in what way it differs from its anionic counterpart.

The lecture will discuss the mechanism of the cationic polymerization and further focus on ring opening polymerizations.

We will cover the possibilties of different connectivity patters in polymers, tacticiy and how these influence the physical properties of the product.

We will briefly discuss the mechanism and requirements to perform polyinsertion reactions.

This chapter will cover key reaction charcateristics of step reactions, peculiarities and physical properties of the products.

We will see how the Carothers Equation can be used as a tool to predict the degree of polymerization and identify key factors to obtain high molecular weights.

The lecture will cover the lab synthesis as well as the industrial procedure to obtain one of the most commonly found polymers.

Here you will learn how polycarbonate (PC) and various polyamides are made.

After finishing the lecture you will be able to recognize trends within different aliphatic polyamides.

This lecture covers basic reactivity patterns of the Polyaddition reaction and the possibility to manufacture foams.

Concluding Remarks - Please leave feedback and contact me for topic wishes.