Elasticity, Deformation, Rearrangement & Assembly in Complex Fluids

非技术摘要拟议的实验研究将在两个主要的科学和技术领域产生影响：如何制造更坚韧的材料和如何使液晶显示技术的想法适应新的水基液晶系统。从广义上讲，该计划开发了在溶液中配制和操纵微米和纳米颗粒以及大分子的新能力。因此，这项研究加强了科学和技术企业，支持美国涉及传感/驱动，微流体，药物输送，光子学，印刷，涂料，化妆品和农业等行业的应用工作。该计划将培养新一代的科学家和工程师在软材料，配方，先进的光学显微镜，电光，微流体，流变计算。完成后，博士生&博士后进入劳动力市场，加强美国的技术和经济基础设施;此外，每年夏天在我们的实验室里，一群不同的本科生和高中生参与者通常会受到刺激，以追求STEM教育/职业选择。技术摘要该计划旨在提高对复杂流体和软材料的认识，但许多发现也会对硬凝聚态物质感兴趣，化学工程和材料科学社区。拟议的实验是统一的，他们的重点是微观力学，广义。其中一组将测量胶体玻璃和晶体的结构和动力学特性，目标是确定这些材料中的“软”区域，并表现出更大的变形或重排倾向。第二组将研究溶致变色液晶。这些液晶是不寻常的，因为它们非常容易扭曲，这导致从非手性介晶形成手性结构，它们表现出从分子到棒状介晶到LC相的两个组装层次，并且它们是水溶性的。这些属性的后果将探讨通过扩散实验，跟踪运动的粒子打扮由本地LC导演字段，通过研究的弹性能量和分子组装层次之间的竞争在“极端”的受限几何形状，并在新的“干燥”的多相液滴。总的来说，实验使用先进的光学显微镜，光散射和流变样品观察，他们需要通过控制悬浮液化学和物理，微流体等新的软材料的配方，例如，具有不同形状，相互作用和潜在的原位操作的胶体颗粒/将被开发。

Non-technical AbstractThe proposed experimental research will have impact in two major science and technology arenas: how to make a tougher material and how to adapt ideas of liquid crystal display technology to new water-based liquid crystal systems. Broadly, the program develops new ability to formulate and manipulate micro- and nano-particles and macromolecules in solution. Thus the research enhances the science and technology enterprise that underpins applications efforts for US industries involved with sensing/actuation, microfluidics, drug delivery, photonics, printing, coatings, cosmetics and agriculture. The program will train a new generation of scientists and engineers in soft materials, formulation, advanced optical microscopy, electro-optics, microfluidics, rheology & computation. After finishing, PhD students & post-docs enter the work force and strengthen US technological and economic infrastructure; furthermore, a diverse group of undergraduate and high school participants are typically stimulated every summer in our laboratory to pursue STEM education/career choices.Technical AbstractThe proposed program aims to advance knowledge about complex fluids and soft materials, but many findings will also interest the hard condensed matter, chemical engineering and materials science communities. The proposed experiments are unified by their focus on micro-mechanics, broadly defined. One set will measure structural and dynamical properties of colloidal glasses and crystals with goals to identify regions within these materials that are "soft" and exhibit increased propensity to deform or rearrange. A second set will investigate lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals. These liquid crystals are unusual in that they twist very easily which leads to formation of chiral structures from achiral mesogens, they exhibit two levels of assembly hierarchy from molecules to rod-mesogens to LC phases, and they are water soluble. The consequences of these properties will be probed by diffusion experiments which track motions of particles dressed by local LC director fields, by study of the competition between elastic energy and molecular assembly hierarchy in "extreme" confined geometries, and in novel "drying" of multi-phase droplets. Collectively, the experiments use advanced optical microscopies, light scattering and rheometry for sample observation, and they require formulation of novel soft materials via controlled suspension chemistry and physics, microfluidics, etc. For example, colloidal particles with different shapes, interactions and potential for in-situ manipulation are/will-be developed.