In this course, we will explore chemical and physical properties of Soft Materials including polymers, colloids, and liquid crystals. In particular, this course will focus on Liquid Crystals (representative Responsive Soft Material) and aim to understand how their unique properties have been leveraged to design Smart materials (also known as Multifunctional materials). We will also cover recent advances in Smart Materials that have been used in a variety of fields, including Drug delivery, Sensor, Smart Window, Logic-Gate, Polymerization.

Prerequisite: None
Preferred: CHE469B (Introduction to Colloid & Interfacial Phenomena); CHEB801C (Soft Matter Interface Engineering)

Attendance (10%), Homework (20%), Mid term (30%), Final (40%), Class Participation (+ Alpha)

1. "Intermolecular and Surface Forces", 3rd Ed., Jacob N. Israelachvili, Elsevier (2011)
2. "Soft Matter Physics : An Introduction", Maurice Kleman & Oleg D. Lavrentovich, Springer (2003)
3. "Principles of Colloids and Surface Chemistry", 3rd Ed., Paul C. Hiemenz & Raj Rajagopalan, CRC Press (1997)
4. "Introduction to Liquid Crystals", Peter J. Collings & Michael Hird, Taylor & Francis (1997)
5. "Liquid Crystals : Nature's Delicate Phase of Matter", 2nd Ed., Peter J. Collings, Princeton University Press (2002)

1. Introduction to Soft Condensed Matter : General Characters
2. Isotropic and Anisotropic Fluids : Liquid Crystals (LCs)?
3. Mesophase Characterization
4. Interfacial Phenomena and Surface Anchoring in LCs
5. Bulk Phenomena and Elasticity in LCs
6. Light in LCs
7. Responsive Soft Materials : Sensor, Light Modulator
8. Midterm
9. Topological Defects
10. Intermolecular and Colloidal Interactions in LCs : Self-Assembly
11. Soft Colloids (living cells) in LCs
12. Intersection of Polymer and LC Science
13. Biological Importance of LCs
14. Recent Advances in Smart materials : Microcargo Transportation, Drug Delivery, Nano Structure Synthesis.
15. Final

- No required textbooks.
- Lecture notes and additional materials will be distributed.