Outline of the course:

This course is focused on educating and training students about the different aspects of polymer chemistry. All major synthetic methods are studied including: step growth polymerization, chain polymerization, coordination polymerization, ring-opening polymerization, copolymerization, industrial techniques, supramolecular polymers etc.

Chain polymerization, anionic, cationic, classic and controlled radical polymerization techniques will be detailed studied.

A focus is placed on the relation-ship between synthetic technique and the control of structural properties of the formed macromolecular material (molecular weight, molecular weight distribution, architecture, crystallinity etc.).



Organization of the lectures:

• Step growth polymerization (general comments, different kind of step growth polymerization, conversion yields, polymerization kinetics, crosslinking, gel point, application examples etc.);
• Chain polymerization (differences between step growth and chain polymerization, nature of the active species, detailed radical and ioniques polymerizations including formation of the active species, polymerization steps, kinetics, concepts of controlled and living polymerizations, copolymerization, application examples etc.);
• Other polymerization techniques: coordination polymerization, ring-opening polymerization;
• Polymer structures and relation-ship between structure and properties (morphology, tacticity, stereoregularity …);
• Polymer processes and industrial techniques (bulk, solution, suspension, emulsion, grafting, crosslinking, blending etc.);
• Introduction to supramolecular polymers.

The objectives of this course are to give the student solid skills on polymer synthesis and on properties of macromolecular materials.
At the end of the course, the students should:

• be able to understand the principles of polymerization and to associate a polymerization technique to a monomer, a formed polymer or to a given architecture;
• be able to predict the molecular weight distribution and the polymerization kinetics;
• be familiar with the copolymerization principles;
• be familiar with the concept of supramolecular polymers

Introduction to polymer science - solid skills in organic chemistry - chemical kinetics.