Overview

 

Soft materials and complex fluids are ubiquitous in natural and synthetic systems. Our interests lie in understanding and controlling the structure and dynamics of such soft matter. Through studies focused on interfacial phenomena, directed self-assembly, rheology and microfluidics, we advance structure-property relationships in colloidal suspensions, liquid crystals, surfactants, polymers and biological materials. We employ microscopy (optical, electron, atomic force), scattering (visible light, x-ray), rheology and other methods, along with some basic polymer and small molecule synthesis. Many of the systems we study have interesting applications as functional materials. We are particularly motivated by applications in clean water and clean energy generation, analytical separations, nanomaterials synthesis and engineering better complex fluids in many forms.

Supramolecular polymers

Directed self-assembly of soft mesophases

Nanocomposites and functional polymers for clean energy and water generation

Rheology and microfluidic flows of complex fluids

Supramolecular polymer High magnetic fields are used to align lyotropic mesophases. Studied by SAXS Aligned nanowire photovoltaics Highly anisotropic vorticity aligned flocs of carbon black particles

 
Our work is made possible by the kind support of these organizations
 
Yale Institute for Nanoscience and Quantum EngineeringChevron CorporationNational Science FoundationYale CRISP MRSEC logo