The course is targeted at the advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate student level and will be useful to R&D chemists, materials scientists and engineers, and innovators in developing a toolbox of methods to use in optimizing formulations for advanced materials and applications.

This course reviews and illustrates the practical applications of physical, organic, and inorganic chemistry, as learned in undergraduate courses, and presents methods, for the constructive chemical surface modification of particulate and planar substrates used in diverse applications in the coatings, materials, and pharmaceutical industries.

The course focuses on physical methods such as layer-by-layer assembly, physical adsorption, and upon diverse chemistries including thiol-driven self-assembly on particular substrates, diverse coupling chemistries, sol-gel silane-based chemistries, living polymerization methods, grafting chemistries including click chemistry, surface-initiated polymerization, encapsulation chemistries, and applications in controlled release, formulating composites, and advanced applications in diagnostics and array technologies. A comprehensive reading list and extensive references are provided to facilitate the practical review of the topics covered as the need for details arises in the workplace and development laboratory.