Complex Fluids and Nanostructured Materials

Faculty and students working in the area of complex fluids and nanostructured materials are engaged in the discovery of new materials and processes that exploit nanoscale structure to perform novel functions. Research includes work with polymers, colloids, nanoparticles and other nanoscale building blocks, supercooled liquids and glasses, proteins and DNA, surfactants and nanoporous materials.

The research groups, often in collaboration with each other or in interdisciplinary teams, aim to advance science, engineering, and technology by applying core chemical engineering expertise to such growing areas as microfluidics, pharmaceutical processing, photonic materials, biomolecular sensing, materials design and assembly, and nanocomposites. Progress is accomplished through development and application of state-of-the-art methods in computational physics and chemistry, statistical mechanics, constitutive modeling, confocal, fluorescence and total internal reflection microscopy, light scattering and rheology.

The breadth of interests (from fundamental science to technology development) and research approaches (including simulation, theory and experiment) represented within the group insure a fruitful interaction among our faculty, visitors, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and undergraduate research assistants. A weekly seminar series, with seminars typically presented by students and postdocs, provides a lively and informative venue for sharing our work with other members of the Michigan complex fluids community.