Materials Chemistry

Catalog description

This course will provide an introduction of structure-property relationships in materials chemistry on length scales from atomic dimension up to the microscale and then draw on examples of Chemical design for "Energy and Environmental Sustainability." We will introduce the "12 Principles of Green Chemistry" and "12 Principles of Green Engineering" as a guide to modern materials chemistry design and follow a trajectory that proceeds with increasing length scales of ordering in the solid state. We will introduce techniques of x-ray, neutron, electron, and ion beam based scattering, real space imaging and spectroscopies and use these to explore non-crystalline materials (amorphous, glasses, and time permitting quasicrystals and aperiodic systems) and crystalline solids. Studies will proceed from atomic scales through nanoscale, mesoscale, and micro-scale discussing the emergence of band structure and delcocalized electronic and optical properties that emerge due to the finite scale of ordering and influence of the surface. Select examples will be drawn from advances in materials for in solar energy utilization with photochemistry and photoelectrochemistry and materials for photovoltaic and enabling advances electrochemical energy conversion and storage.