Rheological properties of vesicles and microcapsules: Flow-induced rotations, oscillations, tumbling motions, deformations, orientations, membrane folding processes and rupture.

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In the newly planned research project we use microcapsules and vesicles as simple model systems for advanced investigations of the rheological behavior of biological cells in simple shear flow. Caused by the defined construction and the wide palette of chemical variation possibilities it is possible to synthesize soft, tailor-made model particles. The combination of different experimental techniques allows a comprehensive characterization of the flow properties of the capsules or vesicles. The main focus of our interest lies, first of all, in the analysis of the non-linear rheological membrane properties. In order to observe flow-induced phenomena we plan the construction of an improved flow cell (rheoscope) which also permits temperature dependent measurements. In this apparatus we can then observe deformations, orientations, oscillations, tumbling movements, membrane rotations, breaking mechanisms and membrane folding processes. The measured data serve to evaluate recent theoretical models, and they can also be used to understand complicated flow-induced phenomena of soft particles.