Phase Transitions and Pattern Formation

Charles Knobler教授获得了理论与计算化学项目的资助，研究凝聚态系统中相变动力学和模式形成的相关问题。实验和计算机模拟将用于研究呼吸图，即水滴在部分湿润的表面凝结时形成的模式。研究将集中在单个液滴的生长机制和对流体-表面相互作用模式的影响。对空气-水界面脂肪酸单分子层的研究也将进行。研究了二维泡沫在气-液膨胀相变中的演化过程，并对深度淬火中观察到的液膨胀-液凝聚和液膨胀-气两相区条纹图案的生长进行了研究。光化学反应中界面的模式形成也将被研究。最后，在三个相共存的系统上，沿着一条通向三临界点的路径进行持续的光散射测量，将提供有关自由能渐近形式的信息。

Professor Charles Knobler is supported by a grant from The Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Program to study problems associated with the dynamics of phase transitions and pattern formation in condensed systems. Experiments and computer simulations will be used to study Breath Figures, the patterns formed when droplets condense on partially wetted surfaces. The research will focus on the mechanism of growth of single droplets and the effects on the patterns of fluid-surface interactions. Investigations of monolayers of fatty acids at the air-water interface will also be conducted. The evolution of two-dimensional foams at the Gas-Liquid Expanded phase transition will be studied and investigations will be carried out on the growth of striated patterns that are observed in deep quenches into Liquid Expanded-Liquid Condensed and Liquid Expanded-Gas two-phase regions. Pattern formation at interfaces in photochemical reactions will also be investigated. Finally, continued light scattering measurements on systems with three coexisting phases along a path leading to a tricritical point will provide information about the asymptotic form of the free energy.