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Postdoctoral Associate Office: 226 Mason Lab Phone: (203) 436-4059 |
Since May 2013, Postdoctoral Associate, Yale University, School of Engineering & Applied Science, Department of Chemical Engineering. Complete CV here |
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In the Osuji lab, I am working on template-assisted fabrication of membranes with vertically aligned cylindrical nanopores. Previous studies have shown that single-walled carbon nanotubes can be sequestered into the magnetic field-aligned aqueous nanopores of an inverse hexagonal lyotropic LC phase (JACS 2012, 134, 3950). By using polymerizable surfactants and monomers for forming such a highly ordered lyotropic phase, it can be used as a precusor for fabricating polymeric membranes. Furthermore, incorporation of carbon nanotubes into the membranes can enhance the high flux performance. |
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Figure 1: From JACS 2012, 134, 3950. |
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Before joining the Osuji lab, I obtained my Ph.D. in soft matter physics with the research done at the department of Prof. S. Herminghaus, the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Germany. My Ph.D. study was mainly focused on structures and self-assembly at liquid crystal (LC) interfaces. In particular, I studied orientational wetting, surface ordering and anchoring behavior induced by adsorption of surface-active molecules at LC interfaces. The surface-active molecules could be conventional surfactants or tailored amphiphiles for non-aqueous environments. By controlling the properties of the adsorbed surface-active molecules at LC/liquid or LC/air interfaces, I investigated the corresponding surface phase transitions at interfaces of isotropic LC, such as, smectic surface layering transitions, nematic prewetting transitions, and interplay between surface freezing and LC pretransitional surface order. In addition, pattern formation in molecular monolayers (e.g., absorbed Gibbs films) was within the scope of my research. In parallel, I was also interested in studying surface- or wetting-assisted formation of polymer nanostructures. |
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