Introduction

This set of text-based web pages is for use by students in Polymer Science 674 "Polymer Structure and Characterization" and/or Polymer Science 632 "Physical Properties of Polymers II", in conjunction with the lectures presented by Prof. Mattice. The web pages supplement the lectures and material presented in the textbook by Painter and Coleman that is currently used in Polymer Science 674, and also present sample questions on this material.

Sample questions

Sample questions are available in several formats

• Derivation
• Multiple Choice
• Numerical Answer
• Short Answer
• Sketch
• Spectra

Topics in Prof. Mattice's lectures, fall 2006

• In the alphabetical list below, topics denoted by "(S)" are especially relevant to Prof. Mattice's exam on September 27, 2006

Alphabetical Index of All Topics

A

• Anharmonic Oscillator

  B

• Beer-Lambert Law (S)
• Block Copolymer (S)

  C

• Characteristic ratio (S)
• Circular dichroism (S)
• Concentration within a random coil (S)
• Crystalline Polymers
  • Adjacent re-entry
  • Generalizations
  • Interfacial region
  • Lamellae
  • Melting
  • Spherulites
  • Switchboard model
  • Unit Cell
  • X-ray scattering

  D

• Dilatometry
• Dissocation Energy

  E

• End-to-end vector (S)
• Excimer (S), and examples (S) for several polymers
• Excluded volume effect (S)
• Expansion factor (S)

  F

• Fiber
• Fluorescence (S)
• Fluorescence depolarization (S)

  G

• Gel Permeation Chromatography
• Glass

  H

• Harmonic Oscillator (S)
• Helices (S)
• Hooke's Law (S)

  I

• Idealized chains
  • Equivalent (S)
  • Freely Jointed (S)
  • Freely Rotating (S)
  • Gaussian (S)
  • Hindered Rotation (S)
  • Porod-Kratky (S)
  • Random Flight (S)
  • Random Walk (S)
  • Worm-like (S)
• Infrared (S) spectra and examples (S) for several polymers
• Intermolecular interactions
  • Hard sphere potential
  • Hydrogen bond (S)
  • Ionic
  • Lennard-Jones potential (S)
  • Nonpolar (S)
  • Polar (S)
  • Square-well potential
• Intramolecular interactions (S)

  L

• Lamellae
  • In block copolymers
  • In semicrystalline polymers
• Light (S)
• Light scattering
  • Dilute Gases
  • Dilute solutions of polymers
  • Dilute solutions of small molecules
• Linear dichroism (S)

  M

• Mark-Houwink-Sakurada equation
• Molecular weight
• Morse Potential

  N

• NMR (S)
• Nonradiative Singlet Energy Transfer (S) and Examples (S) for a few polymers

  O

• Order parameter
• Osmometry

  P

• Persistence length (S)
• Photophysical processes (S)
• Polymers of different kinds
  • DNA
  • Nylon (S)
  • Polyalanine (S)
  • Poly(alpha-aminoisobutyric acid)
  • Polybutadiene (S)
  • Polydimethylbutadiene (S)
  • Polyesters
  • Polyethers
  • Polyethylene (S)
  • Poly(ethylene oxide) (S)
  • Poly(glutamic acid) (S)
  • Polyglycine (S)
  • Polyisobutylene
  • Polyisoprene (S)
  • Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)
  • Polylysine (S)
  • Poly(methyl methacrylate) (S)
  • Polypeptides (S)
  • Polyproline (S)
  • Polypropylene (S)
  • Polysaccharides
  • Polystyrene (S)
  • Polytetrahydrofuran (S)
  • Polytyrosine
  • Poly(vinyl acetate) (S)
  • Poly(vinyl chloride) (S)
  • Poly(vinyl naphthalene) (S)
  • Poly(vinyl phenol) (S)
  • Poly(vinylidene fluoride)
• Polymorphism (S)

  R

• Radius of gyration and examples (S)
• Rotational Isomeric State Analysis
  • nButane (S)
  • Characteristic ratios (S)
  • Ethane (S)
  • nPentane (S)

  S

• Sequence Isomerization
• Size Exclusion Chromatography
• Spectroscopic Instrumentation (S)
• Solvent quality (S)
• Spectra
  • Circular dichroism (S)
  • Fluorescence (S)
  • Infrared (S)
  • NMR (S)
  • UV (S)
• Surface

  T

• Tacticity (S)
• Tacticity Determination (S)
• Thermal changes: Polymer vs. small molecule
• Theta state (S)
  • Analogy with van der Waals gas (S)
  • Detection in a simple simulation (S)
  • From osmotic pressure measurements
• Torsions (S)

  U

• Ultraviolet absorption (S)

  V

• Vibrations (S)
• Viscosity
  • Equivalent sphere treatment
  • Intrinsic viscosity
  • Viscosity average molecular weight