Fundamental Polymer Science

Ulf Wiel Gedde holds the professor chair of Polymeric Materials at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. Professor Gedde's research interests are plastics, polymers, and their properties, polymer physics, crystalline polymers-molecular structure, crystallization kinetics, morphology and properties, thermotropic liquid crystalline polymers, polymers in power-electronics, the long-term performance of polymers, relaxation processes in polymers, polymer fracture, transport properties, polymeric outdoor insulating materials and polymer nanocomposites. Gedde is the author of 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers and one textbook on Polymer Physics (1995) and 5 patents. He has graduated 44 Ph.D students and was one of the scientific sources for the development of bimodal polyethylene materials (Borstar). Gedde has been Editor of European Polymer Journal and is currently Editor of Polymer Testing. Gedde is member of four journal editorial boards. His teaching activities extends over 40 years and span over a wide range of fields across polymer science. Mikael S. Hedenqvist is Professor and heads the Polymeric Materials Division at the Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. He works on synthetic and biobased polymers(polyesters, proteins, polysaccharides) on topics such as processing of polymers, long-term properties and mass transport, electric and mechanical properties of polymers, foams and composites (experiments and simulations/modelling). He is editor of Polymer Testing and has co-authored more than 220 peer-review papers and 8 book chapters. He has written 5 course compendia and teaches in courses on e.g. materials mechanical properties, transport properties of polymers and polymer materials. He has graduated (supervised or co-supervised) 34 PhD students and has been faculty opponent 11 times. He has 4 patents (and 4 patents applications). Hedenqvist has been involved as co-founder, member or advisor in three start-up/SME companies. He has been a visiting researcher at CSIC (Madrid), University of Utah (Salt Lake City), ETH (Zürich), University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) and a visiting Professor at Institut Jozef Stefan (Slovenia) and Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (France).

Introduction to polymer science.- Conformations in polymers.-  Rubber elasticity.- Polymer solutions.-  The glassy amorphous state.- The molten state.- Morphology of semicrystalline polymers.-  Crystallization kinetics.-  Chain orientation.-  Polymer chemistry.-  Solutions to problems given in exercises.