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Complex Fluids and Rheology Group Research

Overview

We are broadly interested polymers, interfaces, emulsions, surfactants, colloids and especially the rheology of such materials.   Please email with more detailed questions:

 
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Polymer blends

Thermodynamically-immiscible polymers are commonly blended together to realize materials with properties not possible with single homopolymers. Our interest is in the rheology of immiscible polymer blends. The stress associated with interfacial tension contributes significantly to blend rheology. We are exploring interfacial-tension driven flow phenomena and methods of relating the rheological properties to the morphology.

 

Compatibilizers

Block copolymers, in this context known as compatibilizers, are commonly used to promote blending of immiscible homopolymers, and to improve interfacial adhesion in the final blend. A significant thrust of our research is exploring the rheological and morphological effects of adding block copolymer to polymer blends.

 

Interfacially-active particles

Partially-wetting particles can be interfacially-active at oil/water interfaces. We find that particles can also adsorb at the interface between two polymers. Indeed, they can sometimes adsorb at two interfaces leading to bridging of drops of an immiscible polymer blend into clusters. We are exploring the flow-induced morphology of such clusters, and the rheology of corresponding particle-containing blends.

 

Microfluidic drop flows

Research in microfluidics has increasingly considered drop flows in microchannels. We find that the pressure drop associated with such a two-phase flow is significantly larger than that needed for an equivalent single phase flow. We are now considering the effect of wettability of the walls on the sizes of the drops generated at T-junctions, and the pressure for conveying a single-file of drops through a partially-wetting channel.

 

Hydrogels of extracellular matrix proteins

We are exploring the viscoelastic characteristics of hydrogels derived from extracellular matrix proteins. Prof. Badylak is developing such gels for tissue-engineering applications.

 

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