Research
Our research interests are centred on experimental soft condensed matter. We study complex fluids, often multicomponent systems, containing polymers, copolymers, (nano)-particles and surfactants. Microfluidics provides unique opportunities to synthesise, formulate, process and analyse fluids and is therefore explored in our work. Additionally, we employ extensively scattering (light, X-rays and neutrons), microscopy, calorimetry and spectroscopy - but we also develop our own measurement tools. Particularly, we resort to novel combinatorial and high-throughput techniques to address problems with large parameter space where conventional experimentation becomes unfeasible.
Recent highlights
Phase behaviour
Combinatorial polymer mixture (PS/PB) library and sequential 2D scattering pattern during spinodal decomposition.
Microfluidics
Fluid thread breakup under microfluidic confinement with applications in oil recovery and biology.
Polymer dynamics
Rotational relaxation of a polymeric methyl group monitored at low temperature (4K) by incoherent neutron scattering.