Georgia Tech's first "Advanced Materials Chemistry" workshop was offered in March 1996 at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The course was really an introduction to the chemistry of "advanced" materials not a high level workshop on materials chemistry. The course was presented by Dr. Angus Wilkinson and Dr. David Collard , and attended by 11 faculty members from around the country.
The instructors: Angus with Upali (top)
The entire team (minus 2): participants, instructors, teaching assistant and lab manager.
An overview of the synthesis and properties of inorganic materials was presented by Angus Wilkinson and the same was done for organic polymeric materials by David Collard. The goal of the workshop was to provide background information on materials chemistry along with specific examples of experiments and topics that could be successfully presented as part of an undergraduate chemistry course. The five mornings of lecture/discussion were supplemented by four afternoon laboratory sessions. The lab component of the workshop seemed to be particularly well received by the participants.
Topics covered in the lecture sessions:
An overview of the properties of inorganic materials Diffraction, structure and stoichiometry Electronic conductivity and inorganic solids Ionic conductivity and inorganic solids Molecular sieves and their applications
Step growth and chain growth polymerizations Molecular weight Thermal properties of polymers Conducting polymers
Topics covered in laboratory sessions:
The preparation and characterization of a 1:2:3 superconductor Phase changes in VO2 The preparation and ion exchange behavior of Na zeolite A The synthesis and properties of a 1 dimensional conductor (KCP) Lithium insertion into V2O5 and the electrical properties of Lix V2O5 The determination of molecular weight by viscometery Differential Thermal Analysis of amorphous and crystalline PET samples Differential Scanning Calorimetery of polystyrenes with varying molecular weights
Back to Index page
Upali's Course Material Chemistry Program,
College of Engineering
and Science