Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisites: courses 105A, 110A, and 112 or Chemistry 110A. How physical properties of polymers can be derived from mathematical models of chains and coils. Comparison of these models to calculations based on random walk problem and used to predict mechanical characteristics of large molecules. Study of networks of polymers and polymeric fluids, with focus on their viscoelastic properties. Discussion of movement of individual polymers within melts. Study of examples of more complex structures, such as polymer fractals. Consideration of applications of this work to biology, with focus on their potential role in evolution and current hypotheses on origins of life. P/NP or letter grading.

Units: 4.0