Fundamentals of chemistry of soft materials; Basic concepts of soft materials, Various interactions, Photoresponsive molecules and self-assembly, Micelles, Vesicles, Toroids, Colloids, Rods, Examples of molecules forming soft materials, Instrumental techniques for morphology studies of soft materials, Liquid crystals, Different class of gels- low molecular weight organo gels, hydrogels, basics, classifications, behaviour of soft materials under zero gravity.

Detailed version

Fundamentals of supramolecular chemistry of soft materials: The concept and development of soft materials, Nature of supramolecular interactions for the soft materials; Noncovalent interactions, ion-ion interactions, Ion-dipole interactions, Dipole-dipole interactions, p-p stacking, Cation-p interactions, Solvophobic interactions; van der Waals interactions, Hydrogen bonding, Multiple hydrogen bonding motifs, Jorgensen model for H-bonding; Photoresponsive molecules and self-assembly, Micelles, Vesicles, Toroids, Colloids, Rods

Self-assembly of supramolecular soft architectures: The concept of supramolecular self-assembly- one, two and three dimensional self-assemblies, Phthalic acid based self-assemblies, Cyanuric acid-melamine assemblies, Rosette motifs, Hierarchical self-organization, Perylenebisamide-melamine assemblies, Oligo(p-phenylenevinylene and p-phenyleneethynylene) self-assemblies, Supramolecular polymers resulting from quadruple H-bonding modules, Molecular capsules, Self-assembled dendrimers, Self-assembled nanotubes; Molecular motors; Liquid crystals.

Gels: Different class of gels- low molecular weight organo gels, hydrogels, basics, classifications, Structure and theory of formation, Swelling, Physical hydrogels, Ionic and hydrogen bonding in gels, Polyelectrolyte gels, Coacervatives, Covalently bonded hydrogels, Applications of hydrogels

Behaviour of soft materials under zero gravity.

1.        J. -M. Lehn, Supramolecular Chemistry: Concepts and Perspectives, Wiley VCH Verlag, 1995.

2.        J. Steed, J. L. Atwood, Supramolecular Chemistry, 2^nd ed., John Wiley, 2009.

3.        J. Steed, J.L. Atwood, Organic Nanostructures, 2^nd ed., Wiley VCH Publishers, 2008.

4.        V. V. Tsukruk, S. Singamaneni, Scanning Probe Microscopy of Soft Matter: Fundamentals and Practices, Wiley VCH Publishers, 2011.

5.        N. Takashi, Supramolecular Soft Matter, 1^st ed., John Wiley & Sons, 2011.

6.        V.K. Pillai, M. Parthasarathy, Functional Materials: A Chemist's Perspective, Orient BlackSwan, Universities Press- IIM Series, 2013.

7.        S. K. Tripathy, Jayant Kumar, H.S. Nalwa, Handbook of Polyelectrolytes and Their Applications, American Scientific Publishers, 2003.

8.        B. Rolando, Hydrogels Biological Properties and Applications, 2^nd ed., Springer, 2009.

9.        M. Tokita, K. Nishinari, Gels: Structures, Properties, and Functions: Fundamentals and Applications in Vol. 136 of Progress in Colloid and Polymer Science, Springer, 2009.