Functional Materials

Owner	Bachelor Scheikunde (joint degree)
Coordinator	dr. Stefania Grecea
Part of	Exchange Programme Faculty of Science, specialisation BSc Chemistry, year 1Bachelor Bèta-gamma, major Scheikunde, year 3Bachelor Chemistry (Joint Degree), year 3

Course manual 2020/2021

Course content

The theme of the course is to understand how the chemistry and structure of polymeric materials (organic, inorganic and hybrid inorganic-organic) allow them to fulfil their required function. The specific subjects covered in more detail are:

• Preparation and functionalization of organic polymers, and the general properties of polymeric systems and polymer networks.
• Characterization of the organic polymers using NMR, GPC, PXRD techniques.
• Colloidal suspensions, basic concepts for tuning their properties, applications in food technology, colloidal crystals and their application.
• Industrial applications of organic polymers. Plastics and circular economy.
• Materials for energy production, molecular storage, adsorption, separation and catalysis. The focus will be on two classes of porous materials: zeolites and metal organic frameworks. Students will learn the synthetic methodologies, the design synthesis of specific materials for targeted applications and their use in relevant industrial processes/technologies.
• Instrumental techniques for materials characterization, such as IR, TGA-DSC, XRD, TPR, gas adsorption.
• Introduction to simulation research of nanoporous materials: students will learn the theoretical foundations of Molecular Dynamics (MD) and Monte Carlo (MC), as well as the practical side of performing molecular simulations for adsorption and diffusion in nanoporous materials: setting up the system, constructing input files for molecules and frameworks, setting up a force field, understanding input settings, and analyzing the output.

Study materials

Literature

• Polymer Chemistry: an introduction (Ellis Horwood Series in Polymer Science and Technology) by Ger Challa. (available for download in Canvas)

• Zeolites and Metal-Organic Frameworks: from lab to industry by Vincent Blay; Luis F Bobadilla; Alejandro Cabrera-García. Amsterdam University Press, 2018. (open access for students and teaching staff)

Other

• http://cnx.org/ Connexions is een van de open onderwijs sites. Het is een digitaal educatief ecosysteem dat bestaat uit een educatief content repository en een content managementsysteem.
• Materiaal op Blackboard.

Objectives

• To define how the chemistry and structure of materials relate to their functionality.
• To describe and compare different synthesis techniques for functional materials.
• To illustrate the different techniques to characterize the functional materials.
• To describe the concepts needed to rationally design new functional materials ranging from nano- to bulk materials.

Teaching methods

• Hoorcollege
• (Computer)practicum
• Bedrijfsexcursies
• Zelfstandig werken aan bijv. project/scriptie
• Zelfstudie

Hoorcollege en practicum, oefeningen, opdrachten en scriptie. Studenten maken een korte scriptie over een door hen geselecteerd onderwerp over hoe de functionaliteit van de chemie van materialen.

Learning activities

Academic skills

Academic writing and presentation skills, critical thinking, observation and interpretation skills.

Attendance

Programme's requirements concerning attendance (OER-B):

• Active participation is expected of each student in the course for which he is registered.
• If a student cannot attend an obligatory part of a programme's component due to circumstances beyond his control, he must report in writing to the teacher in question as soon as possible. The teacher, if necessary after consulting the study adviser, may decide to issue the student a replacing assignment.
• It is not allowed to miss obligatory parts of the programme's component if there is no case of circumstances beyond one's control.
• In case of participating qualitatively or quantitatively insufficiently, the examiner can expel a student from further participation in the programme's component or a part of that component. Conditions for sufficient participation are fixed in advance in the study guide and/or on Canvas.

Additional requirements for this course:

Attendance at all aspects of the course such as lectures and exercise classes is highly recommended. Attendance of the practical laboratory is mandatory. 

Assessment

Item and weight	Details
Final grade
1 (100%) Tentamen

There is an online written exam at the end of the course. Students also give an online presentation on a material selected by them, which is assessed. A report on the practical work is required.

The final mark is composed of: 60% exam mark, 20% presentation mark, 20% practical report. A minimum of 5,5 is required in the examination and, except under exceptional circumstances, completion of all the above parts of the course.

Oral presentation will be graded on the following criteria:

• Narrative style
• Clarity of the presentation (context and content)*
• Scientific content (defining the research question)
• Use of literature
• Structure of the presentation
• Layout of the presentation

* what particular function the material or type of material is required to fulfill. How the nature of the material allows it to fulfill this function. Limitations of the material fulfilling its function. Is there room for improvement?

Assignments

Practicum

• A short report on practical is required. The manual for the practicum contains what is expected from the report.

Literature presentation

• Literature presentation is part of this course, which will be graded. Students will choose a topic from a given list within the theme ‘functional materials’.

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Timetable

The schedule for this course is published on DataNose.

Additional information

Aanbevolen voorkennis: Anorganische chemie en natuurkundige chemie.

Processed course evaluations

Below you will find the adjustments in the course design in response to the course evaluations.

Contact information

Coordinator

• dr. Stefania Grecea