Materials Science MSc Program

Course Instructor:  Stanislav Fedotov, Dmitry Aksenov

Description: The goal of this course is to provide a survey of materials chemistry and surface spectroscopy techniques. Further emphasis will be placed on interfacial chemistry of materials surfaces and ex situ and in situ study using various surface sensitive spectroscopy methods. The course will rely on strong undergraduate math/physics background the students, however no background in materials will be assumed or required.

Course Instructor:Sergey Luchkin

Description:  This is a research seminar of the Skoltech Center for Energy Science and Technology and Materials Science Education program featuring presentations of young Skoltech researchers (MSc students, PhD students, postdocs) as well as external invited speakers. Every MSc and PhD student should deliver at least one presentation during the course. The range of topics is broad and includes any aspects of materials science. As a rule, each speaker presents results of his/her own research with a particular focus on research methodology. Every presentation is followed by a discussion.

Full Syllabus

Course Instructor: Artem Abakumov

Description:

Course Instructor: Stanislav Fedotov

Description: The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with the modern practically useful methods of materials characterization spanning various diffraction, microscopy, spectroscopy and electrochemistry techniques.

Course Instructor: Dmitry Krasnikov

Description: The present course aims to provide a concise but comprehensive introduction to a multidisciplinary field of catalysis. As it affects more than 90% of the chemical industry and generates up to 30 % of the GDP, catalysis employs models and methods from a wide variety of disciplines: from physical chemistry to solid-state physics, from quantum chemistry to hydrodynamics. Thus, two strategies are usually used for teaching: separate educational programs (>2 years) or brief discussion during one or two lectures max. Here we wish to propose a third way – a 3 credit course with problem-oriented education. During the course, the students will learn basic principles and concepts of catalysis and develop a team project on a particular and demanding scientific problem. The latter will be defended during the discussion seminar with other student teams acting as opponents and reviewers.

Course Instructor: Aleksandr Kvashnin

Description: The course provides a graduate level overview of selected topics of materials science related to formation of material and its stability. We will begin with the stability of materials by defining the energy contributions responsible for the stability including configuration, vibrational, and thermodynamic contributions to Gibbs free energy. Next, we will consider phase transitions and phase diagrams of materials with various dimensionality. One of the important factors responsible for stabilization is the formation of defects. Types of defects in bulk and 2D materials will be discussed. Considering all the above we will move to discussion of properties of surfaces and thin films which are the most important materials for sensing, energy storage, catalysis, and other applications.

Course Instructor:  Stanislav Fedotov

Description:This course will be useful to a diverse group of students involved in designing new functional materials including but not limiting to electrode materials and solid electrolytes for rechargeable batteries. This course has two objectives: (i) to familiarize with the key parameters and laws that govern the organization of crystalline matter and related crystal structures, (ii) to give a comrehensive guide of to how to “read”, understand and “tune” crystal structures to design, create and modify functional properties of materials.

Course Instructor:  Artem Oganov

Description:This course is an introductory subject in the field of materials science and crystallography. The goal is to introduce students to basic concepts of structure-property relations for materials at the microscopic level.

Course Instructor: Dmitry Krasnikov

Description: The present course aims to provide a concise but comprehensive introduction to a multidisciplinary field of catalysis. As it affects more than 90% of the chemical industry and generates up to 30 % of the GDP, catalysis employs models and methods from a wide variety of disciplines: from physical chemistry to solid-state physics, from quantum chemistry to hydrodynamics. Thus, two strategies are usually used for teaching: separate educational programs (>2 years) or brief discussion during one or two lectures max. Here we wish to propose a third way – a 3 credit course with problem-oriented education. During the course, the students will learn basic principles and concepts of catalysis and develop a team project on a particular and demanding scientific problem. The latter will be defended during the discussion seminar with other student teams acting as opponents and reviewers.

Link to Computational Chemistry and Materials Modeling

Course Instructors: Dmitry Aksenov

Description: The course provides a graduate level overview of modern atomistic computer simulations used to model, understand and predict properties of technologically important materials. The emphasis is on practical use of techniques, algorithms and programs to bridge theory and applications, from the discovery of materials to their use in real-world technologies. Several laboratories give students direct experience with simulation methods as well as practical knowledge on how to use computational modeling and how to present and interpret results of simulations. Bridges from atomic to complex systems demonstrate potential of different theories to applications relevant to multiple major industries in the future, including nanotechnology and energy.

Link to Advanced Materials Modeling

Course Instructors: Sergey Levchenko,  Alexander Shapeev

Description: The course builds on introductory Computational Chemistry and Materials Modeling course to provide in-depth understanding and advanced-level use of commonly employed modeling methods, as well as teach state of the art methods tailored for modeling of specific classes of materials relevant to multiple major industries in the future, including nanotechnology and energy. The emphasis is on practical use of techniques, algorithms and programs to bridge theory and applications, from the discovery of materials to their use in real-world technologies. Personalized advisory of multiple experts in different areas of computational materials science will allow students to accomplish challenging projects related to their MSc/PhD theses or other research in materials science.

Course Instructors: Dmitry Aksenov

Description:This is the main research seminar at Skoltech for Computational Materials scientists. All students of Computational Materials Science subtrack of Materials Science MSc program and Materials Science and Engineering PhD program should attend this seminar. Topics include materials modeling (at atomistic scale), theoretical and computational chemistry, theoretical and computational physics of materials, underlying mathematical methods and algorithms etc. Invited lectures are top scientists in their research field. Students are welcome to present their own research results at this seminar and expected to do this at least once per two terms.

Course Instructor: Artem R. Oganov

Description: This course is an introductory subject in the field of materials science and crystallography. The goal is to introduce students to basic concepts of structure-property relations for materials at the microscopic level.

Full Syllabus

Course Instructors: Elena Gryazina

Description: The aim of this course is to refresh the basic topics that you are expected to get at bachelor level. If you do not feel confident with basic matrix manipulations, integration and differentiation, solving differential equations, operating with complex variables e t.c. – you should definitely take this course; fluency in these is a must for an educated engineer.

Course Instructors: Sergey Dyakov

Description: The course will review the basic concepts of quantum mechanics. It is intended both for those who studied quantum mechanics previously and for those who did not. The purpose of the course is not only to introduce the main principles of quantum mechanics but to familiarize with them through active problem solving, which is the only practical way to study quantum mechanics. The course will cover the main topics such as one-dimensional motion, perturbation theory, scattering theory, approximate methods in quantum mechanics, density matrix formalism.

Course Instructors: Sergey Rykovanov

Description: This course is devoted to learning how to use Python for High Performance Computing on different architectures – multi-core CPUs and general purpose GPUs. The course is oriented on practical knowledge, where the students will get a hands-on experience with Python code profiling, modern Python frameworks, such as Python MultiProcessing, Numba, Cython, mpi4py, PyCuda and others. Wide range of problem sets from linear algebra, image processing, deep learning, physics and engineering makes this course interesting and suitable for all levels of students from all CREIs. Students will also get the possibility to work on modern supercomputers.

Course Instructors: Sergey Kosolobov

Description: This course gives an introduction to solid state physics, one of the cornerstones on which a modern technologies are based. We will begin with the conventional classification of solids on the basis of binding forces, to be followed by crystal structure description and experimental techniques for crystal studies. From there we will discuss classical and quantum aspects of lattice dynamics and begin the study of the electronic structure of solids, including energy band formalism and carrier statistics in metals, semiconductors and insulators. Next we will consider basics of the atomic and electronic processes at crystal surfaces and interfaces, kinetic effects and scattering of the electrons. We will continue with the study of the optical processes in solids, including nonequilibrium carrier dynamics and photovoltaic effects and their applications in technology.

Course Instructors: Alexander Korsunsky, Olga Ushakova, Alexey Salimon

Description: This course provides a general, broad base introduction into materials science and engineering of applied materials. Firstly, the fundamental physical phenomena are considered that occur at different scales in the main classes of applied materials: metals, ceramics, polymers, natural materials, composites, and hybrids. Next, the interrelation between thermodynamics, diffusion kinetics, and deformation behavior is explored. The concept of structure is introduced, and the nature of structural elements at the atomic, molecular, nano-, micrometer and macroscopic scales is discussed: short and long range order in amorphous materials and crystals, defects, crystallites, grains and subgrains, precipitates, grain boundaries, interfaces, spherulites, etc. These are used to demonstrate the principal approaches to property control and evaluation in materials engineering and related technologies: chemical composition, synthesis, fabrication, heat treatment, plastic deformation, hybridization, and surface engineering.

Principles to control the properties are translated in terms of design performance applicable to the diverse classes. Ashby’s material selection algorithm for rational selection of materials for specific designs and applications will be taught here in comprehensive way – analysis of function, objectives and constraints, deducing of performance indices. All the concepts covered in lectures will be practiced by using CES EduPack a software to implement data intensive learning.

The lectures will be supported with a number of laboratory practical lessons devoted to the development of practical skills in traditional materials science research flow – the visualization, characterization and modification of structure followed by the testing and analysis of properties. All concepts covered in lectures will be the subject of exercises using open source software to implement data intensive learning. Individual projects (problems) will be formulated to introduce the CDIO approach in Applied Materials and Design.

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Course Instructor: Albert Nasibulin

Description: The course covers the subject of carbon nanomaterials (fullerenes, nanodiamond, nanotubes, and graphene). The history of carbon compounds since antiquity till our days starting from charcoal to carbon nanotubes and graphene will be reviewed. The students will have opportunity to synthesize carbon nanotubes (by aerosol and CVD methods) and graphene, to observe the materials in transmission (TEM) and scanning (SEM) electron microscopes as well as by atomic force (AFM) microscope and to study optical and electrical properties of the produced carbon nanomaterials. A few lectures are presented by various specialists on the topic of their research.

Full Syllabus

Course Instructors: Albert Nasibulin

Description:The course will introduce the basic phenomena of aerosol science, particle formation in the gas phase and their behavior, concepts and measurement techniques for the aerosol particles. Students will synthesize (carbon nanotubes, NaCl, metal, metal oxide and polymer) nanoparticles by two aerosol techniques: gas-to-particle and liquid-to-particle conversions. Students will be trained to operate spark-discharge aerosol synthesis reactor for production of nanoparticles and single-walled carbon nanotubes and spray drying and pyrolysis reactors.

The student will perform the on-line measurements of number size distribution of aerosol synthesized nanoparticles by differential mobility analyzer (size range: 2-1000 nm). Students will become familiar with processes of the aerosol particle collection (filtration, electrostatic precipitation, thermophoretic precipitation). The produced samples of nanoparticles will be observed with means of transmission and scanning electron microscopies.

Totally 34 lecture hours and 15 exercise hours, 5 hours for seminar lessons, 6 presentation hours will be arranged. Students will write a short essay and give a presentation on one of the selected topics.

Course Instructors: Fedor Fedorov

Description:
The course is devoted to the development of chemical sensors and the assessment of their analytical figures of merit mainly from a viewpoint of material science with an emphasis on functional nanomaterials.The sensors are about signal transduction of a chemical interaction to a physical signal which can be measured or assessed by a human. As most processes, which are intended to be a basis for sensor development, occur on the surface, they involve physical and chemical phenomena. Thus, it is important to understand such a physico-chemical system as a whole that leads to selective, sensitive recognition of specific interaction. In our course, we will examine and go from the basics of surface physics and chemistry to the real applications of materials and nanomaterials in chemical sensors and analytical systems. We will study the operation principle of the most widely applied sensors like resistive, electrochemical, acoustic, mass, biosensors, and optical ones. The synthesis of sensitive materials and the design of chemical sensors will also be considered. We will finally touch on the multisensor system and data analysis, including the machine learning protocols.

Course Instructors: Vladimir Antonov

Description:

Course Instructors: Alexey Salimon

Description:This is a research seminar of the Skoltech Center for Energy Science and Technology and Materials Science Education program featuring presentations of young Skoltech researchers (MSc students, PhD students, postdocs) as well as external invited speakers. Every MSc and PhD student should deliver at least one presentation during the course. The range of topics is broad and includes any aspects of materials science. As a rule, each speaker presents results of his/her own research with a particular focus on research methodology. Every presentation is followed by a discussion.