To further enhance the international competitivenessof South China University of Technology (SCUT), align the soft matter sciencecourses with global education standards, expand students’ internationalexperiences, as well as support SCUT’s “Double First-Class Initiative”construction, School of Emergent Soft Matter (SESM) successfully held the 3rdResearch Frontiers in Soft Matter Sciences Summer School from July 4 to 19,2024. During the two-week period, more thanten distinguished scientists and professors were invited to deliver aseries of insightful lectures to our undergraduate students. They all come fromtop universities and research institutions worldwide, such as National Universityof Singapore, University of Akron, the University of Texas at Austin andothers.
Specialty Courses
Regarding the questions that students are mostconcerned about, such as what are the applications of soft matter science inlife and what is its future development direction, the visiting professors,combining their own teaching and research experiences, pointed out possibledevelopment directions for students from different aspects such as thepreparation of soft matter, the relationship between structure and function,and material processing.
In modern society, the two most widely used polymers,polyethylene and polypropylene, are both produced using Ziegler-Natta metalcatalysts. At the same time, the semiconductor materials in new organic solarcells are also prepared through metal-catalyzed coupling reactions. In thespecial lecture on Metal-catalyzed Polymerization Reactions of thesummer school, students first learned the basic theory and reaction mechanismof metal catalysts, including the 18-electron rule, elementary reactions, andthe influence of ligand properties on the metal catalysis effect. Then, theydeeply studied the reaction mechanisms of different polymerization reactionssuch as ethylene polymerization and living polymerization ofpolythiophene. At the end of the course, the visiting professor also introducedinformation about applying for direct doctoral programs in Americanuniversities and encouraged students to make plans in advance and successfullyapply to their desired universities.
Facing the increasingly depleted fossil energy and theincreasingly severe climate crisis, what contributions can soft matterscientists make? In the special topic of Polymer Morphology and EnergyConversion of the summer school, students learned the synthesis methodsof block copolymers, understood the intrinsic properties and self-assemblybehaviors of dendritic, star-shaped, and bottlebrush polymers. Together withthe visiting professor, they explored the spherical, lamellar, tubular, andcolumnar nanostructures formed by the self-assembly of block copolymers andtheir applications in OLED displays, solar cells, and lithium-ion batteries.They truly felt the important significance of polymer structure design forimproving energy conversion efficiency and the application prospects of newdevices.
Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene has excellentmechanical properties and is gradually replacing metals with higher density andcarbon fibers with higher preparation costs in production and daily life. Thetraditional processing technology of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylenefiber requires the use of a large amount of solvent to fully dissolve anduntangle long-chain polyethylene, which has the disadvantages of high cost andhigh pollution. Is it possible to develop a processing method that completelyrequire no solvents? With this question, in the special topic ofInnovation in Polymer Processing Technology, students learned thesynthesis method of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene and the basicprinciples of polymer crystallization, understood the characteristics ofpolymer processing below the melting temperature, and traced the entirepreparation process of high-strength polyethylene strips. The visitingprofessor showed a model of a hydrogen transport conduit made of a new type ofpolyethylene material with metal morphology and strength, which brought greatshock to the students.
The successful hosting of this year’s summer schoolhas facilitated the internationalization of the School of Emergent Soft Matter(SESM), strengthened the communication with overseas universities, and cultivatedmore high-level innovative students. At the same time, it has promotedinternational exchanges and development in soft matter science discipline.