CM4258 - ADVANCED POLYMER SCIENCE

Academic Year 23/24 - Semester 2

Assessments:

Literature Presentations with Q&A: 30% (×2)
Quiz 1 (open book): 20%
Quiz 2 (open book): 20%

Lecturer(s): Prof Jiang Donglin

Course Overview:

Lecture 1: Recap of basic polymer chemistry, chain growth and step growth polymerization examples and mechanism
Lecture 2: Stable free radical polymerization
Lecture 3: Degenerative transfer radical polymerization
Lecture 4: Atom transfer radical polymerization (1)
Lecture 5: Atom Transfer radical polymerization (2)
Lecture 6: Atom Transfer radical polymerization (3)
Lecture 7: Other examples of controlled polymerization
Lecture 8: Supramolecular polymerization (1)
Lecture 9: Supramolecular polymerization (2)
Lecture 10: Dendrimers
Lecture 11: Conducting polymers basics
Lecture 12: Conducting polymers application: Organic Field Effect transistors
Lecture 13: Conducting polymers application: Organic solar cells
Lecture 14: Biopolymers and sustainable polymers

Difficulty of the course: Average

Pace of the course: Just Right

Duration provided to prepare for tutorials: >7 Days

Workload of Course (Average number of actual hours spent per week)

To learn the content: 6 hours

To complete assignments: 1 hour

REVIEW
What advice would you give to someone considering to take this course?

Anonymous: Following the advice from seniors on NUSMods, the lectures can seem daunting because of the numerous literature examples but as long as you get the general idea of the topic which is usually the first part of the lecture (for example how the polymerisation mechanism works, the end groups of the polymer, specific reagents used and the order of addition of reagents during polymerisation, band gap diagram for the conducting polymer application) you can technically gloss over the literature examples. The lectures are not recorded and can be dry at times but I still attended as sometimes Prof does elaborate more on the lecture content and will sometimes emphasise key things that we should know. It was normal to overrun the literature presentation timing requirements and for each literature presentation paper, it would be related to the first and second half of the lecture series during the sem. I would suggest for Literature Presentation 1 to focus on presenting key data you can normally find in polymer papers (conversion %, Average number molecular weight, Polydispersity index, ratio of reactants in polymerisation, chain end structures) and for Literature Presentation 2 use the basic concepts introduced during the lecture when presenting like key parameters for applications of conducting polymers.

What did you enjoy or find most useful from this course?

Anonymous: I enjoyed the conducting polymers part of the lectures even though the applications was very new to me and related to physics. The first part was useful as it built up what I had learnt in Polymer Chemistry I with new polymer organic reactions.

What aspects of the course did you find most challenging, and why?

Anonymous: I think preparing for the Quiz was challenging as every lecture had many literature examples so it was difficult to sieve out what was important. Furthermore, there were only 2 tutorials throughout the semester so there wasn't much practice for the quizzes. For the Literature Presentations, there wasn't much guidance/rubric and subsequent feedback for the presentation which was challenging/ can be discouraging for learning continuity.

What resources did you find most helpful in helping you better understand the course material?

Anonymous: Online resources like an overview of the topic were helpful for me in better understanding some key terms of the topic that was in the lecture slides but not really elaborated.

What other courses do you think should be taken before or concurrently with this course?

Anonymous: Polymer Chemistry 1 should be taken before the course as some of the basics, especially in the first half of the semester are reintroduced during this course.

Back to CM4258