Professor Bridgette Budhlall's Teaching Portfolio: Graduate Courses

26.513 - New Plastics Materials

This course is designed to provide an overview of the most recent developments in polymeric and plastics materials, with a focus on the new polymerization chemistries associated with such emerging technology. Topics covered will include: New developments in polyolefins, metallocene chemistry, new developments in “rotaxane” type resins (multi-ring or ring-in-ring compounds), new developments in hyperbranced polymers (dendrimers), liquid crystalline polymers, conducting, semiconducting, polymer LEDs, electroluminescent and electroactive polymers, micro- and nanocapsule hydrogels for drug delivery systems, stimuli-responsive polymers, shape memory polymers, smart polymeric films and coatings, polymer photoresists for micro and nanolithography and polymer dielectrics for integrated circuits.

Pre-Req: 26.201 Polym. Mat. I, 26.202 Polym. Mat. II, or 26.544 Adv. Plastics Mat.

Next Offering: Fall 2014

26.532 - Adhesives and Adhesion

This course covers the fundamentals of adhesion and adhesives including theories of adhesion and cohesion, surface science, chemistry and properties of adhesives, surface preparation, adhesive bond evaluation, adhesive joining of engineering materials. Commercial adhesives and applications.

Pre-Req: One semester of undergraduate physical chemistry.

26.533 - Coatings Science and Technology I

Organic polymer chemistry and basic principles of design and formulation of waterborne, high-solids and powder resins used for the development of solvent-less green coatings and the use of bio-derived resins, mostly based on soybean oil and other renewable raw materials. The mechanisms and methods of curing and of polymerization for polymers used as coatings will also be covered.

Pre-Req: One semester of undergraduate polymer chemistry.

26.534 - Coatings Science and Technology II

Physical properties of organic polymer coatings and their characterization and manufacture. Emphasis will be placed on how the coatings formulation ingredients and their interactions impact rheological properties (structure/property relationships), and how these properties impact real-world flow behavior (property/performance relationships) of coatings during mixing, pumping, application, and flow and leveling, etc. This course is designed to provide coating formulators with the necessary foundation for both of these aspects. The course will cover important rheology parameters (viscosity, shear-thinning, thixotropy, viscoelasticity, etc.) and their measurements. How these parameters are related to various formulation aspects and key rheological properties that control application behavior will be discussed in addition we will examine a number of real-world scenarios to emphasize important principles.

While this course is a continuation of 26.533 Coatings Science and Technology I, the first course covers the chemistry of coatings and is not considered a pre-requisite for Coatings Science and Technology II.

26.542 - Colloidal Nanoscience and Nanoscale Engineering

This course covers the fundamentals of nanoscale colloidal processes, intermolecular forces and electrostatic phenomena at interfaces, boundary tensions and films at interfaces, electrostatic and London forces in disperse systems, interactions and self-assembly of polymer colloids, nanoparticles, surfactants and biomolecules. Applications of these fundamentals in nanoscience and nanoscale engineering will be discussed. Nanoscience leads to development of many new technologies with relevance to polymer science and plastics engineering, including Microfluidics; lab-on-a-chip; nano-biocolloids, vesicles, colloidosomes, polymersomes and polymer hydrogel microcapsules for drug delivery and nanostructured materials and devices. These emerging technologies will be presented and discussed in the second half of this course.