Do you have a keen interest in global issues like sustainability, renewable energy, and personalised healthcare? Supported by leading experts from academia and industry, this invaluable course explores the real-world application of polymers in state-of-the-art research laboratories.
This Royal Society of Chemistry accredited degree course delivers a thorough knowledge and understanding of the world of polymer chemistry, taught by our academics and industrial experts. You will be immersed in a research-led environment where you can learn about the synthesis and characterisation of polymers as well as their physical properties.
This course is ideal if you are looking to undertake a PhD or an industrial career in the fields of polymer synthesis and soft materials.
Core modules
Polymer Synthesis
This module aims to provide a detailed overview of the fundamental considerations and hypotheses of polymer chemistry ensuring that all students have a suitable background knowledge of the major synthetic methods and mechanisms as well as appropriate physical chemistry knowledge to excel in the more advanced aspects of the course. The material will focus on highlighting the importance of advanced polymer structures as well as comprehensive teaching of the applicable polymer synthesis techniques.
Advanced Polymer Synthesis
This module is cotaught with the undergraduate MChem course CH404: Synthetic Chemistry III (Macromol) and consists of 10 lectures between October and December. Two lecturers will deliver the content and you will have an extended workshop with each lecturer (just Polymer MSc students) to discuss recent literature in the area. The assessed work component will be to write an essay detailing literature advances by an assigned author relating to the content of the lectures.
Physical Properties of Polymers and Nanocomposites
The ability to characterise polymers/composites and link this to their observable properties is crucial, and this module will cover many advanced aspects of this; in particular, diffraction and scattering techniques and how polymer physical properties affect their processibility. Students will be given the chance to obtain real data in the laboratories and link this to the lecture material.
Polymer Laboratories
This module aims to provide advanced level laboratory experience to the students in the polymer chemistry field. Students will be practically performing polymerization as a part of other modules of the Polymer Chemistry MSc program. Here, more advanced aspects are encountered and particular emphasis is placed on creative experimental design. Since, the students have (at least indirect) access to research-quality analytical equipment, evaluation and interpretation of original data is highlighted. The students will be able to implement some aspects of good practice in measurement science in a research context. The chemical systems and molecules that will be characterised will be generally of an unknown nature. Safety aspects of laboratory work will also take a step closer to the research context since some of the associated hazards will vary considerably between one student’s work and the next.
Colloid Science I and II
Colloid science is a fundamental and essential aspect of polymer chemistry. The area experiences great interest from the chemical industries across a great variety of application areas, such as laundry care and personal care products, drug delivery formulations, food and drinks, coatings and adhesives, agricultural formulations and many others.
Polymers in the Real World
The module runs through term 1 and 2 with seminars delivered by internal researchers (PhD, PDRA, ECFs) and external professionals (e.g. industrial polymer scientists). Before each lecture you will write a 500 word 'mini-essay' on the topic to be covered in the seminar. This should include 3 questions to be asked and discussed with the speaker and 3 primary references (research articles) from the literature. Finally, you will prepare a poster on a research topic covered during the seminar series and present this at a module symposium. You will also be expected to attend the department of Chemistry external seminar series.
Chromatography and Separation Science
During this interdisciplinary module students will learn about theory and practice of different types of chromatography and their application in real-world scenarios. They will develop the skills necessary to decide how to decide which methods are the most appropriate for a given separation problem - whether for analysis or purification of, for example, synthetic polymers, biomolecules, or biopharmaceuticals. The module includes workshops on data interpretation and lab sessions providing students with hands on experience with several different chromatographic methods.
Group Research Project
The cohort will be split into groups that will work together to share knowledge and understanding of an area of contemporary polymer chemistry with the aim of writing a proposal to address a challenge within this area. The proposal will be written and also presented orally at a specially arranged session. The proposals will then be peer-reviewed by the other groups against strict criteria.
Transferable Skills
20-week Research Project
The module is designed to develop student research skills, through an extended project in an area of chosen discipline. Students will become aware of the elements of research, including appraising the literature, designing novel experiments (practical and/or computational), assessing results and drawing conclusions that they will be able to set against the current field. This module will allow students to be original in their application of knowledge to the solution of new, research-led problems.
Optional modules
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- Mass Spectrometry
- Magnetic Resonance
