Informace o kurzu

The lectures cover chosen aspects of using materials in 21st century society driven by the needs of a circular economy and green chemistry. The focus is on discussing energy- and cost-efficient materials with new advanced functionalities; on how to greatly reduce the amount of material demanded in modern technologies; and on how to make materials with defined properties to meet everyone?s individual needs. Students will learn about different scientific aspects of sustainability, renewability, and recycling. They will gain the knowledge of physics and chemistry of modern materials, how they are made, used, and applied to reduce the impact of the current lifestyle. At the end of the course, students should have appreciation for innovative material design as an additional tool for reducing environmental impact, and they should be able to choose materials according to multiple criteria. 1. Nature's selection of materials: Can we do better? 2. Materials transforming the industrial revolution 3. Introduction to materials for modern society: From silicon discovery to bio- and opto-electronics 4. Materials by design: Bulks vs thin films vs nanomaterials - deposition techniques, tuning physico-chemical properties on-demand by controlling the material's atomic structure 5. Fundamental properties of materials - thermal, electrical, mechanical, ultra-high-temperature, ultra-high-pressure, and radiation resistant (non)-crystalline materials 6. Recycling materials - green-chemistry approaches, design for recycling, the energy costs and environmental impact of various processes 7. Using less material by design - modern structural materials, additive manufacturing and other novel manufacturing techniques 8. Materials for renewable energies 9. 'The devil's green bargain': Balancing safety and energy recovery in nuclear power 10. Bio-compatible materials - surface engineering, implants and bio-activity 11. Optically-driven modern society: sensing, telecommunications, energy-efficient devices, optics and photonics in daily life 12. Presentations by students on selected topics 13. Rezerva. The course is to be given in English, students will be evaluated on presentations they will make in English about chosen aspects of sustainable materials.