Plastics and the planet: Health, impact and sustainability

This unit will focus on the relationships between processing, structure and properties in polymeric materials. Beginning with the mechanisms for the formation of polymeric chains, the molecular‐scale structures will then be described in detail and the links to important mechanical properties explored. There will be coverage of how the properties change with temperature and timescale, and the important technological applications of a wide range of polymeric materials will be described as well as environmental aspects. Finally, the unit will introduce a number of analysis methods which are crucial for characterising the properties of polymers.