PH 428/528 - Spring 2006              Intro to Modern Nanotech:
                                             Intermolecular Forces (3 credits)

Course Information

Lecturer: Professor Igor Sokolov, room #: SC-204, phone: 268-2375,
          e-mail: isokolov@clarkson.edu
          http://www.clarkson.edu/~isokolov/

Office Hours:  TBA

Reference materials: Israelachvili, J. N. (1991) “Intermolecular and Surface Forces”, 2nd ed., Academic Press, London. 

Supportive book: Geoff Ozin, A Arsenault Nanochemistry (2005) A Chemical Approach to Nanomaterials (ISBN: 085404664X)

Papers and Reviews.

Prerequisites: Quantum Physics PH331, Electromagnetism PH380, Calculus III, Optics (desirable), Physical Chemistry

Lectures Schedule: 11:00AM-- 12:15PM TuTh   Sci Ctr 301

Course description:

The course is devoted to study of intermolecular and surface forces. Particular attention will be focused on modern achievements in studying such forces with the help of the force apparatus and atomic force microscopy. After passing the course you will understand the modern concepts of intermolecular and surface forces, basics of modern experimental techniques allowing detecting of the intermolecular forces.

The course will consists of major 3 parts:
1. Intro into intermolecular forces (lectures + homework)
2. Preparation and presentation of topics related to the intermolecular forces (by students or groups of students)
3. Surface force measurements (lectures + lab experiment on measurements of forces with AFM).

The final exam/project will be on description of the AFM experiment and processing of the measured data.

Course work and Homework:

All students are expected to prepare short presentations on the topics of interest. All students are expected to participate in active discussions during the presentations. Number of presentations and their lengths will be determined by the number of students in the course. Some problem sets will be assigned.

Exams and grades:

The grades will be assigned based on your Problem Sets (20%), homework presentations (30%), discussion participation (20%), and the final exam/project (30%). There will be one take home final exam/project.