Undergraduate Laboratory In Polymer Science And Engineering

我们的目标是建立一个高分子科学与工程本科实验室来更新宾夕法尼亚大学的本科工程项目。拟建的实验室将通过教授高分子科学的重要原理并向他们介绍最先进的设备，使本科生受益。项目范围涉及必修核心课程、选修高分子课程和独立的本科研究或设计项目。计划的实验室练习包括聚合物合成、计算机模拟、分子和结构表征、形态研究和机械性能测量。在合成他们自己的聚合物后，热力学，动力学和机械性能将使用差示扫描量热计和动态机械分析仪进行研究。这种热分析设备将成为本科高分子实验室的主要组成部分，因为这些仪器可以探测多种高分子特性（例如玻璃化转变，结晶，模量）。该项目的一个独特之处在于结合了分子模型来说明链的构象和弹性，并预测分子结构的宏观性质。使用现有的本科光学显微镜设备来研究聚合物的相变和结晶是必要的。这个项目有三个重要的原因：宾夕法尼亚大学目前还没有用于研究聚合物科学和工程的本科实验室设施，我们的本科工程师经常在聚合物或聚合物相关领域找到工作，最后，聚合物材料具有巨大的商业和科学重要性。

We aim to establish an Undergraduate Laboratory in Polymer Science and Engineering to update the undergraduate engineering program at the University of Pennsylvania. The proposed laboratory will benefit undergraduate students by teaching important principles in polymer science and by introducing them to state-of-the-art equipment. The scope of the project involves required core courses, elective polymer courses and independent undergraduate research or design projects. The planned laboratory exercises include polymer syntheses, computer simulations, molecular and structural characterizations, morphology investigations and mechanical property measurements. Upon synthesizing their own polymers, thermodynamic, kinetic and mechanical properties will be investigated using a differential scanning calorimeter and a dynamic mechanical analyzer. This thermal analysis equipment will be a major component of the undergraduate polymer laboratory, because of the variety of polymer characteristics which these instruments can probe (e.g. glass transition, crystallization, moduli). A unique feature of the project is the incorporation of molecular modeling for illustrating chain conformations and tacticity and for predicting macroscopic properties from molecular structures. A hot stage is necessary to study the phase transitions and crystallization of polymers using an existing undergraduate light microscopy facility. This project is significant for three reasons: undergraduate laboratory facilities for the study of polymer science and engineering currently do not exist at Penn, our undergraduate engineers frequently find employment in polymer or polymer- related fields, and finally, polymeric materials are of immense commercial and scientific importance.