MATSE 112Applied Materials Chemistry for Engineers

3 credits · Materials Science and Engineering · Penn State

The goal of this course is to instruct students on how to apply the basic tenants of chemistry towards materials used for a variety of engineering applications as well as to provide an introduction to many of the core concepts of materials science and engineering. The course will begin with an in depth look at the fundamental intermolecular forces that pervade atoms, molecules, ions and dense materials and underlie the observed properties of materials with respect to environment. The course will then continue on to discuss crystal chemistry to teach students how to determine and interpret Miller indices and crystal structures as well as to express the relations between structure and material properties. Thermodynamics and kinetics are then discusses with regard to reactions within inorganic chemistry and properties of inorganic materials with an emphasis on theoretical calculation and understanding of important concepts such as the Gibbs free energy and Fick's laws. The course will then cover electrochemistry, focusing on the fundamentals and relation to battery development and corrosion prevention before concluding with an overview of materials synthesis processing involving many of the previously addressed concepts.