NIGK22003U Cancelled Plant-based Materials: Structure and Performance from Nano to Macro Scale
MSc Programme in Nanoscience
Can the properties of plant-based materials be understood based on their origin and function in the living plant?
In this course, we explore the relationship between materials like wood and fibres and the plant tissues from which they are derived. Plant-based materials are renewable and have small or even negative carbon footprints. Knowledge about how plants are transformed to recyclable materials that can replace or supplement fossil-based materials is consequently becoming more and more important throughout the circle from field or forest to product and back again. In this course, we study plant tissues at the nano and micro scales to understand their macroscale behaviour, and how inherent properties are utilized and even mimicked in man-made materials derived from plants.
The purpose of the course is to provide a fundamental understanding of how the structure of plant-based materials determines their physical properties and performance. The course enables students to understand how structure and chemistry plays an important role for vital material properties like for instance their mechanical performance and their resistance against fungal biodegradation, where for example enzyme-biomaterial interactions become important.
The course includes an introduction to relevant experimental methods used within material science to study material properties, such as various types of microscopy (light microscopy, electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy/AFM), vibrational spectroscopy (infrared and Raman), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and mechanical testing such as dynamic-mechanical analysis (DMA).
The course covers the following subjects:
- Structure from nano-scale to macro-scale of:
- Tissues in the living plant that are used as materials, such as wood and fibres
- Human-made materials derived from plants
- Biopolymers and their properties
- Water in plant-based materials and effect on properties
- Chemical modification of plant materials
- Degradation mechanisms
Knowledge:
- describe how the material structure of different plant-based materials affect their physical properties (e.g. mechanical, degradation)
- explain how water interacts with the material structure in plant-based materials and hereby affects the physical properties
Skills:
- select appropriate experimental techniques to characterise material structure and properties of plant-based materials
- analyse the material structure of a plant-based material and from this estimate approximate material properties
Competences:
- discuss and predict likely plant-based material properties based on their material structure
Please see absalon page.
- Category
- Hours
- Lectures
- 32
- Preparation
- 131
- Practical exercises
- 4
- Project work
- 32
- Seminar
- 6
- Exam
- 1
- Total
- 206
- Credit
- 7,5 ECTS
- Type of assessment
- Written assignmentOral examination, 30 mine
- Type of assessment details
- Hand-in of a report prepared during course, followed by 30 minutes oral exam without preperation. The written and oral part of the exam each count 50% towards the final grade. The oral exam has two parts. One part is a presentation of the report prepared during the course, the other is an exam question to be drawn from a set of questions. The possible questions will be known to the students beforehand. The students pass the course, if the average grade of the two exam parts is 02 or above.
- Exam registration requirements
- Aid
- All aids allowed
- Marking scale
- 7-point grading scale
- Censorship form
- No external censorship
Several internal examiners.
- Re-exam
Identical to ordinary exam.
Hand in a report no later than two weeks before the reexam. The students may hand in a revised report, if they handed in a report for the ordinary exam.
Criteria for exam assesment
See learning outcome.
Course information
- Language
- English
- Course code
- NIGK22003U
- Credit
- 7,5 ECTS
- Level
- Full Degree Master
- Duration
- 1 block
- Placement
- Block 3
- Schedule
- C
- Course capacity
- 50
The number of seats may be reduced in the late registration period
Study board
- Study Board of Physics, Chemistry and Nanoscience
Contracting department
- Department of Geoscience and Natural Resource Management
Contracting faculty
- Faculty of Science
Course Coordinators
- Lisbeth Garbrecht Thygesen (lgt@ign.ku.dk)
- Emil Engelund Thybring (eet@ign.ku.dk)
- Anand Ramesh Sanadi (anrs@ign.ku.dk)