Individual course details
Study programme Theoretical and Experimental Physics
Chosen research area (module)  
Nature and level of studies Master Studies
Name of the course Polymer Physics
Professor (lectures) Suncica Elezovic-Hadzic
Professor/associate (examples/practical)  
Professor/associate (additional)  
ECTS 10 Status (required/elective) elective
Access requirements Knowledge in statistical mechanics
Aims of the course Introducing students to the contemporary polymer physics.
Learning outcomes Students will obtain a basic grasp of some of the key concepts and methods used in polymer physics and learn to utilize them for analysis of various physical phenomena in polymer systems.
Contents of the course
Lectures Basic properties of polymers. Ideal polymer chain. Real polymer chain in a good solvent. Universality and scaling concepts. Deforming ideal and real polymer chains: tension, compression and adsorption. Flory theory of a polymer in good and poor solvents, collaps transition. Polymer networks and gels: percolation, branched polymers, mean-field and scaling models of gelation.  Basic models of polymer dynamics. Relationships between polymer statistics and critical phenomena.
Examples/ practical classes Problem sets illustrating material presented in lectures.
Recommended books
1 "Polymer Physics" M. Rubinstein and R.H. Colby, Oxford University Press 2003.  
2 "Scaling Concepts in Polymer Physics" P.G. de Gennes, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1979  
3 "Introduction to Polymer Physics" M. Doi, Clarendon Press 1996.
4  
5  
Number of classes (weekly)
Lectures Examples&practicals   Student project Additional
6 4      
Teaching and learning methods lectures, consultations, homework assignments, presentations
Assessment (maximal 100)
assesed coursework mark examination mark
coursework   written examination  
practicals 20 oral examination 40
papers      
presentations 40