SE 398: Principles of Complex Materials
(3-0-0-0-4)

An understanding of the properties of many modern materials is linked very intimately to the understanding of the scientific principles that led to their development. The scientific principles, in turn are better appreciated when shown to be related to the material properties they are responsible for. In this course the emphasis will be on the scientific principles. They will be discussed in detail, starting from the very basics. We believe that the course is truly interdepartmental in nature. A single department or a single instructor will perhaps be insufficient in view of the diversity of the topics that will be covered. Irrespective of the instructor group teaching the course in a particular semester, a thorough presentation of the basic principles (unit 1 below) will be given in about 8 lectures. Four chosen topics will covered in depth and four others will be covered in a less detailed manner. Approximate number of lectures for each topic, for which a detailed presentation is being envisaged is six, and that for the ones with less detailed presentation is two or three. The list of topics will change from one year to another and will depend on the interest and expertise of the instructors. The list of topics given below in different units of the course content, is one that the proposers of the course may want to choose from.

List of Topics:

1. Basic Principles: Structure & Bonding, relationship to properties.
2. Organic & Polymeric materials:
   1. Conducting Polymers
   2. Bio-molecular Electronics
   3. Light Emitting Diodes
3. Sensors & Actuators
   1. Electro-rheological materials
   2. Piezoelectric materials
   3. Bio-sensors
   4. Chemical sensors
   5. Micro Electromagnetic Sensors
   6. Acoustic sensors
   7. Thermoelectric materials
   8. Magnetostrictive Materials
   9. Shape-memory alloys
4. Nano materials
   1. Physics of Nanostructures
   2. Nanotechnology
   3. Carbon Nanotubes
5. Structural materials:
   1. Intermetallics
   2. Ceramics
   3. Polymers
   4. Composites

A course of this nature cannot be taught on the basis of standard texts. Notes based on review articles will be prepared. Suitable review articles may also be given to the students. Two useful texts, which will be used are:

1. Nikolai Vsevolodov, Biomolecular Electronics: An introduction via photosensitive proteins, Birkhauser, Boston.
2. S.M. Sze, Semiconductor Sensors, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York.

The course is being proposal by the following group of instructors, who agree to participate in teaching the course in the first few years.

Prof. Pinaki Gupta-Bhaya (Chemistry)

Prof. Monica Katiyar (MME)

Prof. Sandip Sangal (MME)

Prof. Bisakh Bhattacharya (Mech. Engg.)

Prof. V. Chandrasekhar (Chemistry)

Prof. Sanjiv Bhargava (MME)