Dr. Jennifer Weiser
Professor of Chemical Engineering
Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering
Faculty Bio

ChE 210: Materials Science for Chemical Engineers

Materials Science for Chemical Engineers

Prerequisites:

 Ch 110 – General Chemistry

Text and other requirements

Required textbook: Fundamentals of Materials Science and Engineering: An Integrated Approach by Callister and Rethwisch (5th ed.) ISBN# 978-1-119-12764-2 (e-text) or 978-1-119-12764-3 (loose leaf bound).

Course overview:

This course is designed to introduce the basic principles underlying the behavior of materials.

The course provides the scientific foundation for an understanding of the relationships among material properties, microstructure, and the behavior of metals, ceramics, and polymers. Students will develop a vocabulary for the description of materials and explore how atomistic properties influence larger scale morphology and macroscopic behavior.

 This course will cover:
  • Introduction to Materials Science (Chapter 1 – all sections)
  • Atomic Structure and Interatomic Bonding (Chapter 2 – all sections)
  • Metals and Ceramics (Chapter 3 – 3.1-3.11, 3.14, 3.17-3.19)
  • Polymers (Chapter 4 – all sections)
  • Imperfections in Solids (Chapter 5 – 5.1-5.5, 5.7-5.8)
  • Diffusion (Chapter 6 – all sections EXCEPT 6.6)
  • Mechanical Properties (Chapter 7 – all sections EXCEPT 7.12)
  • Failure (Chapter 9 – all sections)
  • Phase Diagrams (Chapter 10 – 10.1-10.11)
  • Optional topics include, but are not limited to: Thermal Properties, Corrosion, Case Studies, Economics, etc. 

Course goals and objectives:

By the end of this course, you should be able to: 
  • Explain the role of materials selection in the context of chemical engineering design
  • Define key vocabulary used in describing materials science and engineering
  • Identify equipment types for many common industrial materials and their particular applications
  • Explain how each of the three main material types, metals, ceramics, and polymers are used in different applications
  • Draw unit cells for face-centered cubic, body centered cubic, and hexagonal close-packed crystal structures and calculate Miller Indices
  • Given the chemical formula for a ceramic compound and ionic radii, determine the crystal structure
  • Describe a typical polymer molecule in terms of its chain structure
  • Explain how the repeat unit influences the macromolecular properties, such as degree of crystallinity and melting temperature
  • Describe crystalline defects
  • Name and describe the two mechanisms of diffusion
  • Create stress/strain diagrams and describe how that correlates to material’s properties
  • Explain mechanical properties such as ductility, stiffness, strength, hardness
  • Compute flexural strength of materials using a three-point loading test
  • Describe the mechanism of crack propagation for ductile and brittle fracture
  • From a fatigue plot, determine fatigue lifetime and fatigue strength
  • Define creep and specify the conditions under which it occurs
  • Given a binary phase diagram, the composition of an alloy, its temperature, and assuming that the alloy is at equilibrium, determine phases present, the composition of the phase, and mass fraction of the phase
EID 222: Biomaterials


Biomaterials

Prerequisites:

Permission of instructor listed, but not required.

Text and other requirements

Required textbook: Biomaterials Science: An Introduction to Materials in Medicine, 3rd edition by Ratner, Hoffman, Schoen, and Lemons. Hardcover ISBN: 9780123746269, eBook ISBN: 9780080877808. Furthermore, I will be using material from An Introduction to Tissue-Biomaterial Interactions by Dee, Puleo, and Bizios. ISBN: 978-0-471-25394-5. These books will be the main resource for this class and I highly recommend you have a copy of Ratner’s book. I will provide a simplified version of my lecture notes, but you will need materials to take additional notes, do problems during class (paper, pencil or pen, and a calculator), and access to a computer to do certain homework problems. If you would like to prepare for class ahead of time, you can read section numbers from the text in the class schedule, but that is not essential.

Course overview:

The course is a study of both natural and synthetic materials and how they interact with the human body. Topics covered include mechanical properties, design considerations, biocompatibility, the immune response, potential for allergic response and carcinogenic ramifications, mechanical compatibility, effects of long-term implantation, and government regulations. Students will develop a vocabulary for different classes of biomaterials and explore how atomistic properties influence larger scale morphology and macroscopic behavior inside the human body. After a general introduction to biomedical materials, case studies involving physiological systems are considered, and design of artificial parts and materials are investigated.

This course will cover a portion of each topic. However, due to time, we may not cover every topic:

Materials Science and Engineering
  • Section 0 – History of Biomaterials
  • Section I.1 – Properties of Materials
  • Section I.2 – Classes of Materials Used in Medicine

Biology and Medicine
  • Section II.1  – Some Background Concepts
  • Section II.2 – Host Reaction to Biomaterials and Their Evaluation
  • Section II.3 – Biological Testing of Biomaterials
  • Section II.4 – Degradation of Materials in the Biological Environmental
  • Section II.5 – Application of Biomaterials

Practical Aspects of Biomaterials
  • Section III.1  – Implants, Devices, and Biomaterials: Special Consideration
  • Section III.2 – Voluntary Standards, Regulatory Compliance, and Non-Technical Issues

Note – The exact sections in each of these chapters will be explicitly listed on the lecture slides. We will rarely be covering entire chapters from either book, but sections that give a good representation of the material.

Course goals and objectives:

By the end of this course, you should be able to 
  • Develop design criteria for biocompatible, biodegradable, and bioactive materials for specific uses in biomedicine, including devices and implants.
  • Explain biological responses to foreign objects including immune response, blood clotting, and scar tissue formation.
  • Relate biological responses to the design considerations for biomedical devices and implants.
  • Compare and contrast biomedical materials technologies currently on the market and the future technologies on the horizon.
  • Explain the regulation of biomedical materials and the ethical concerns surrounding the testing and use of biomedical materials.
  • Demonstrate the ability to design, perform, and analyze data from inquiry-based laboratory experiments.

Laboratory assignments:

There will be three at home group laboratory assignments. Each lab will have a short pre-lab write up and a longer post-lab report. All materials for the labs will be provided for you except for salt and water. There will be a need to use a heating source for the assignment. We will discuss in class safety, but be mindful of using a heat source at home.
ChE 351: Separation Process Principles  

Separation Process Principles

Prerequisites:

ChE331 (Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics II)

ChE342 (Heat and Mass Transfer)

Text and other requirements

Required textbook: Separation Process Principles by Seader, Henley, and Roper (3rd ed.) ISBN# 0470481838

Course overview:

This course covers a few of the multitude of methods used to separate chemical mixtures, particularly in industrial applications. Separation processes are often the most complicated component of real chemical process design/operation because of the many options and degrees of freedom. We will apply thermodynamic and transport concepts to the design of continuous-contact and staged separation processes and discuss the limitations of mass transfer theory and empiricism in real chemical plant design/operation. In order gain a better understanding of the subject, we will focus in-depth on a few processes, primarily on distillation, absorption and membranes. However, throughout the course, a wide variety of separation processes will be included to broaden the discussion.

This course will cover:
  • Introduction to separation processes (Chapter 1 – 1.1-1.8, 1.10)
  • Review of thermodynamics of mixtures and modeling chemical properties (Chapter 2 – 2.1, 2.3, 2.8)
  • Review of diffusivity, Fick’s law of diffusion, mass transfer mechanisms, and calculation of mass transfer coefficients (Chapter 3 – 3.1.1, 3.2, 3.5.2, 3.7.1)
  • Single equilibrium stages and flash calculations (Chapter 4 – 4.2, 4.3, 4.4)
  • Binary distillation (Chapter 7 – 7.0-7.2, 7.3.1, 7.3.2, 7.3.4, 7.3.7, 7.3.9, 7.4.3, 7.5.1, 7.6.1)
  • Absorption and stripping of dilute mixtures, with an emphasis on graphical methods of solution (Chapter 6 – 6.0-6.4, 6.5.4, 6.6.1, 6.6.3, 6.7)
    • also extending this knowledge to multicomponent mixtures
  • Batch distillation at an unsteady state (13.0-13.1)
  • Equilibrium-based models for industrially relevant membrane separations (Chapter 14 – 14.0-14.2, 14.3.1, 14.3.2, 14.3.4, 14.3.6, 14.3.8, 14.4, 14.6-14.7)
  • Equilibrium-based models, mass transfer, and surface chemistry of adsorption, ion exchange, and chromatography (Chapter 15 – 15.0-15.1, 15.2.0, 15.2.1)
  • Bioseparations (Chapter 1 - 1.9)

 Topics I would like to cover if there is time
  • Liquid-Liquid Extraction and Ternary Systems (Chapter 8)

Course goals and objectives:

By the end of this course, you should be able to: 
  • Explain the role of separation operations in an industrial chemical process
  • Define key vocabulary used in describing separation processes
  • Identify equipment types for many common industrial separation processes and their particular applications
  • Explain how each of the following systems work: partial condenser, partial reboiler, flash tank, absorber, stripper, batch distillation, distillation column, liquid-liquid extractor, membrane separator
  • Use Fick’s law and other empirical relationships to calculate mass transfer rates
  • Design and size columns for absorption and stripping of dilute mixtures and distillation of binary mixtures graphically and analytically
  • Calculate mass transfer rates in various types of membrane separators

ChE 474: Drug Formulation and Delivery
 

Polymer Technology and Engineering

Prerequisites:

Ch231 (Organic Chemistry I)
Or permission of instructor

Text and other requirements

Required textbook: Introduction to Polymers by Young and Lovell (3rd recommended, but 2nd is acceptable as well) ISBN-13: 978-0849339295. It can be found new or used on amazon, the book store, or the CRC website. Furthermore, I will be using material from Principles of Polymer Systems by Rodriguez, Cohen, Ober, and Archer (6th edition, but 5th is acceptable as well). ISBN-13: 978-1560329398. These books will be the main resource for this class and I highly recommend you at least purchase a copy of Introduction to Polymers.

Course overview:

This course is designed to introduce the basic principles of polymerization. The course provides the scientific foundation for an understanding of how polymers are named, how they are synthesized, and how their microstructure influences their behavior. Students will develop a vocabulary for the description of polymers and explore how atomistic properties influence larger scale morphology and macroscopic behavior in the scale up of polymer technologies.

This course will a portion of each topic. However, due to time, we may not cover every topic:

Introduction to Polymers (3rd edition)
  • Chapter 1 - Concepts and Nomenclature
  • Chapter 2 - Principles of Polymerization
  • Chapter 3 - Step Polymerization
  • Chapter 4 – Radical Polymerization
  • Chapter 5 – Ionic Polymerization
  • Chapter 6 – Stereochemistry and Coordination Polymerization
  • Chapter 10 – Theoretical Description of Polymers in Solution
  • Chapter 13 – Frictional Properties of Polymers in Solution
  • Chapter 16 – The Amorphous State
  • Chapter 17 – The Crystalline State

Selected topics in
  • Chapter 11 – Number-average molar mass
  • Chapter 12 – Scattering Methods
  • Chapter 14 – Molar Mass Distribution
  • Chapter 19 – Elastic Deformation
  • Chapter 20 – Viscoelasticity

Principles of Polymer Systems (6th edition)
  • Chapter 7 – Viscous Flow
  • Chapter 13 – Fabrication Processes
  • Chapter 14 – Fabrication Processes: Extrusion and Molding

Course goals and objectives:

 By the end of this course, you should be able to: 
  • Draw the structure and name common polymers
  • Define key vocabulary used in describing polymers
  • Explain the difference between step and chain growth polymerization
    • Describe the differences in various types of chain growth polymerization
  • Derive kinetic equations associated with step and chain growth polymerizations
  • Calculate the molar mass of different polymers
  • Describe how polymers behave in different solvents and the importance of a theta solvent
  • Explain the importance of viscosity in polymer solutions and describe how to determine these values
  • Compare and contrast the difference in the amorphous state vs. the crystalline state.
  • Explain how stereochemistry affects different material properties of the same polymer structure.
  • Identify equipment types for many common polymer processes
    • Explain why certain equipment is more appropriate than others in different applications
ChE 474: Drug Formulation and Delivery
 

Drug Formulation and Delivery

Prerequisites:

Ch231 (Organic Chemistry I)
Or permission of instructor

Text and other requirements

Recommended textbook: “Drug Delivery: Engineering Principles for Drug Therapy” by W. Mark Saltzman

Course overview:

This course covers the fundamentals of drug formulation and drug delivery systems in the context of current therapeutics on the market and the process in which they were developed. Specific topics include traditional drug formulation, mechanisms and kinetics of pharmaceutical stability, controlled-release devices, transdermal delivery, intravenous delivery, oral drug delivery, pulmonary delivery, and targeted drug delivery. The course is designed to cover specific drug delivery topics that are expanded upon with student driven discussions of primary literature assigned by the professor.

Course Objectives

1.    To understand the underlying physical, chemical, and engineering principles that form the foundation of a wide range of drug delivery systems.
2.    To critically read, understand, and evaluate the primary drug delivery literature.
3.    To clearly present the concepts of specific drug delivery systems in a verbal format.

Course topics include, but are not limited to and may be subject to change:
  • Pharmaceutical formulation
    • Small molecule formulation and stability
    • Solid state chemistry
    • Macromolecule stabilization
  • Transdermal drug delivery
  • Controlled release devices
    • Bioerodible, stimuli-sensitive, matrix, regulated, PEGylation
  • Targeted drug delivery
    • Gene therapy, antibody-drug conjugates, immunotherapy, CRISPR
  • Lung/mucosal drug delivery 
  • Oral drug delivery
  • Intellectual property/patents
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