Welcome to the research page of our group working on the exciting mathematics, computation and science of Nano Fluids and Soft Matter Materials. The "nano fluids" we study are liquids comprised of anisotropic molecules, idealized as large aspect ratio spheroids, which undergo a disorder-to-order transition above a critical concentration. The first discovery of this remarkable phase transition was by F. Reinitzer in 1888, with the tobacco mosaic virus! Many advanced, high performance materials achieve these distinguished property enhancements through collective orientational molecular distributions, in stark contrast to covalent bonds among molecular constituents. This feature is the basis for "Soft matter materials".
Nano-composite materials, for example, generally consist of a molecular additive to a traditional material, such as a polymer. The nano-additive has special properties beyond its geometric distinction, that enhance specific material performance features. Long rod-like molecules are typically used for strength properties (spider silk is Nature's illustration), whereas platelet molecules (nano-clays, carbon pitch) are known to enhance barrier properties to liquids or gases, or to thermal conduction.
When these nano liquids are subjected to flows, amazing nonlinear phenomena result which are well documented experimentally. Most of the observations are poorly understood, and require new theory, modeling, and simulations. These phenomena have to be understood for scientific principles if one has any hope of controlling the nano materials pipeline. the complexity has many faces: spatial and temporal scales that span molecular to processing scales; dynamics & structure competitions between soft molecular phases and flow; and finally, bulk material properties which result from molecular morphology created during processing. Our research group works on the dynamics of these molecular responses to flow, molecular structure formation that arises in confined flows, and on the bulk performance properties of soft matter materials made by flow processing.