Main Group Chemistry in Material Science

Which topics were covered in the lecture? Which focus was set?

The main topic of the lecture „Main Group Chemistry in Materials Science“ is phosphorous chemistry. In the first part of the course, most of the common phosphorous allotropes were discussed. The lecture aims to clarify the structure and synthesis of these allotropes. Also, some of the current applications of the allotropes were presented to illustrate the material science aspects of these compounds.
In the second part of the lecture, the main topic was silicon compounds, focusing on silicon as electrode material in modern batteries or an ion conductor in solid-state-batteries.

How did the Lecturer give this lecture? (blackboard writings, script, slides)

Once a week, the lecturer uploaded a video where he discussed the current slides of the week.

How were the tutorial sessions structured? How time-consuming are the exercise sheets?

For the first part of the lecture, there were weekly exercises containing probable exam questions. Unfortunately, this was not the case for the second part of the course.

What was the exam like? (written or oral, length of the exam, time required for exam preparations)

At the end of this lecture, there was a 90-minute-long written exam on the lecture topics. The exam’s difficulty was very appropriate, and the questions were as promised, close to the problems in weekly exercises.

What are the required qualifications for this course? Are there certain bachelor’s or master’s lectures that are fundamental or complementary to this lecture?

No special prior knowledge from certain lectures is required.

Would you recommend the lecture to others? What was your motivation for choosing this lecture?

In conclusion, this lecture gives a detailed and very comprehensible overview of phosphorous chemistry and explains the current topics and challenges in R&D of modern battery technology.

I would recommend this lecture to the students who show interest in current battery research and who are trying to improve their understanding of how novel materials for this research field are discovered.