Transport science plays a role in all things dynamical - and can often play the crucial role. As such, it is an extremely versatile science. Learning to think effectively about fluids and transport enables one to understand and contribute to a wide range of interesting and important problems. Our group works various areas of micro-scale fluid mechanics and transport science - microfluidics and electrokinetics, active, nonlinear and interfacial microrheology of complex materials, polymer dynamics and sensors. Current theoretical and experimental projects include:
- Non-linear (induced-charge) electrokinetic flows, with an eye towards portable, self-contained and implantable microfluidic devices,
- Extending the capabilities of "microrheology" (which typically uses colliodal beads as passive tracers to measure the rheological properties of complex materials) by using active forcing to extract nonlinear material response properties;
- Developing and employing a novel technique for measuring the rheology of fluid-fluid interfaces, with particular emphasis on natural and synthetic lung surfactant layers and surfactant-laden polymer-polymer interfaces;
- Theoretical and experimental investigations into interfacial mobility of nanoparticle and copolymer surfactants (collaboration with Leal and MRL), and
- Understanding the self-assembly and transport properties of nanostructured materials, with applications in ultracapacitors for energy storage (collaboration with Chmelka).
This is a wide range of topics, loaded with interesting and important questions - underscoring the versatility of this fascinating field.