This course was taught by Prof. Scherer for the last time in the fall term of 2016.
Students in Princeton’s Materials Program come from a wide range of backgrounds, so it is helpful to have an introductory course that reviews the essential topics. The emphasis naturally changes according to who is teaching the course in a given year. My syllabus, shown below, covers what I consider to be the fundamentals, but it particularly reflects my own interest in glasses and gels.
Interatomic forces
Adsorption
Percolation theory
Fractals
Sol-gel processing
Glass transition
Relaxation kinetics
Crystal structures
X-ray Diffraction
Elasticity & Viscoelasticity
Composites
Thermodynamics 1st & 2nd Laws
Phase rule
Phase diagrams
Solutions
Capillarity
Viscous flow
Diffusion
Sintering
Nucleation
Crystallization
Phase separation