Organic and Biomaterials Chemistry Part 1: An Introduction to Polymer Chemistry
Explore the fundamental chemical concepts underlying the synthesis, properties, and design of a wide variety of organic materials important for engineering applications.
Organic and Biomaterials Chemistry Part 1: An Introduction to Polymer Chemistry
Explore the fundamental chemical concepts underlying the synthesis, properties, and design of a wide variety of organic materials important for engineering applications.
Organic and Biomaterials Chemistry is a self-paced online course that focuses on the chemistry and chemical structure-property relationships of soft synthetic and biologically derived materials.
What you'll learn
- Explore the polymer descriptors that allow researchers to control polymer properties (e.g. molecular weight, dispersity, and topology).
- Understand the mechanisms of step-growth and chain-growth polymerization.
- Explain how varying reaction parameters such as temperature and solvent choice can affect the outcome of a polymerization reaction.
Prerequisites
- University-level Introductory Chemistry or 3.091x: Introduction to Solid-State Chemistry
- University-level Calculus
Meet your instructors
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Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering -
Principal Lecturer and Digital Learning Scientist -
Instructor and Digital Learning Lab Fellow
Rob Macfarlane
Rob Macfarlane
Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Prof. Rob Macfarlane is an Associate Professor in MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering. His research focuses on developing a set of design principles for synthesizing new inorganic/organic composite materials, where nanoscale structure can be manipulated to tune the emergent physical properties of a bulk material. These structures have the potential to significantly impact energy-related research via light manipulation (e.g. photonic band gaps or plasmonic metamaterials), electronic device fabrication (e.g. semiconducting substrates or data storage devices), and environmental and medical research (e.g. hydrogels for sustained drug delivery).
Jessica Sandland
Jessica Sandland
Principal Lecturer and Digital Learning Scientist
Jessica Sandland is a principal lecturer in MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE), where she leads online learning initiatives-- developing massive open online courses (MOOCs), collaborating with faculty, researching best practices in online learning, and designing blended learning experiences for the MIT community. She has overseen the development of a wide variety of DMSE’s online courses, including 3.086x (Innovation and Commercialization), 3.032x (Mechanical Behavior of Materials), 3.024x (Electronic, Optical, and Magnetic Properties of Materials), 3.15x (Electrical, Optical and Magnetic Materials and Devices), and 3.054x (Cellular Solids).
Jessica is one of the co-founders and leads of the MICRO program, whose mission is to provide a remote research and education experience for engineering undergraduates from disadvantaged backgrounds. She also serves as a senior member of Open Learning’s Digital Learning Laboratory. Her current research interests include the utility of peer review in open online courses and the use of humor in MOOCs, and she’s received awards for Best Paper in ‘20 and ‘22 for her contributions to the IEEE LWMOOCs Conference. Jessica also received the 2019 MITx Prize for Teaching and Learning in MOOCs and was a finalist for the 2019 edX prize. Jessica holds a Ph.D. in electronic materials from MIT.
John Harrold
John Harrold
Instructor and Digital Learning Lab Fellow
John Harrold is a Digital Learning Lab Fellow in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He earned his PhD in Biophysical Chemistry from Rutgers University. His research focused on photosynthesis and developing bioinspired energy applications. He moved to Cambridge for his postdoctoral appointment at Harvard University in Physics where he continued to study photosynthesis and working with biointerfaces. He serves as course coordinator for 3.012x Thermodynamics of Materials and is developing courses for MITx including Biomaterials.
His research focuses on finding lower cost alternatives to current commodities. To do this he is developing tools do metabolic engineering as well as novel synthetic techniques and applications. In his spare time John enjoys fencing both as a competitor and as a coach. He also likes to bicycle and hike as frequently as the Massachusetts weather will permit.