Informace o kurzu

The course implements an innovative approach of reverse class and brainstorming. Students are encouraged to actively participate in emerging topics concerning chemistry and physics of new materials, environmental and green chemistry, the principle of sustainable technologies and circular economy. The focus is on discussing energy- and cost-efficient materials with new advanced functionalities; how to greatly reduce the amount of material demanded in modern technologies; and 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 an appreciation for innovative material design and new chemical approaches as an additional tool for reducing environmental impact, and they should be able to choose materials, chemical processes, and technologies according to multiple criteria. Below, we show a list of possible topics to be covered in the course. Yet, the list is mostly a guideline, and the content of the course will be updated annually to reflect new trends and challenges of emerging materials being developed. 1. History of materials - important aspects and milestones of human discoveries 2. Summary of fundamental processes such as sorption, catalysis, oxidation, reduction and their kinetics, isothermal sorption etc. 3. Fundamental properties of materials - thermal, electrical, mechanical, ultra-high-temperature, ultra-high-pressure etc. 4. Overview of experimental techniques used to characterize materials 5. Nature's selection of materials 6. Materials by design: Bulks vs thin films vs nanomaterials - deposition techniques, tuning physico-chemical properties on-demand by controlling the material's atomic structure 7. Photoinduced processes, photocatalysts, and photosensitisers in environmental applications 8. New types of materials (natural materials, oxides, hybrid etc.) in environmental applications 9. Materials for renewable energies 10. Balancing safety and energy recovery in nuclear power - materials and technology approach; radiation-resistant (non)-crystalline materials 11. Using less material by design - modern structural materials, additive manufacturing and other novel manufacturing techniques 12. Recycling materials - green-chemistry approaches, design for recycling, the energy costs and environmental impact of various processes