Course Level:
Third Year
Academic Year:
2005/2006
1. Transport Processes: (6 weeks)
Translational diffusion in one, two and three dimensions:
- random walk
- distribution functions
- Fick’s first and second laws
- diffusion from a sharp boundary
- diffusion coefficient, chemical potential and frictional coefficient for molecular motion
Electrophoresis:
- gradients of electrochemical potential in solution
- electrophoresis in supporting matrices
Sedimentation:
- comparison of gravitational and centrifugal fields
- sedimentation rate and molecular weight
- equilibrium centrifugation and molecular weight
- density gradient centrifugation
Viscosity:
- laminar flow between plates and in tubes
- intrinsic viscosity
Molecular size and shape information from frictional coefficients and intrinsic viscosities
2. Interaction of electromagnetic radiation and matter: (6 weeks)
Classical description of periodic phenomena:
- electromagnetic waves
- weight-on-a-spring: undriven and driven, undamped and damped
Scattering, absorption and dispersion of electromagnetic radiation:
- Rayleigh and Thompson scattering limits
- macromolecular size and shape from radius of gyration (Zimm plots)
- resonance limit
- Beer-Lambert law for absorption of energy
- birefringence and dichroism for plane and circularly polarized light, macromolecular solutions
Special topics (time permitting):
- Small angle x-ray scattering, neutron scattering, Raman scattering
- fluorescence and phosphorescence
- nuclear magnetic resonance, electron spin resonance