Wednesday, 26 October 11:00am – 12:00pm

This seminar will be delivered in Chemistry Lecture Theatre 4 and Online Zoom Please email chemistry.researchsupport@sydney.edu.au for zoom link and password.

Speaker: Dr Joe Barry; University of Melbourne

Host: Dr Max Roemer

Title: Measurement in soft matter systems

Abstract: Soft materials have critical application in paints, food processing, biology and medicine. The function of these materials depends upon responses to external stimuli that may be orders of magnitude different in length and time-scales. A change in something as simple as size or material stiffness of a drug delivery particle can mean the difference between successful release of a drug at a specific location in the body or expulsion; a change in porosity or viscoelastic response of a hydrogel used for cell culture can significantly impact biological functions such as cell proliferation and differentiation; and a change in strength can determine if capsules containing flavour, fragrance or paint survive processing & handling. These widely varying but poorly understood characteristics are fundamental to the future design of advanced materials.  In this talk I will present new models that open up the possibility of testing material properties directly at the length-scale and geometry relevant to the required application. I will also discuss advances in the measurement of two fundamental interfacial quantities: the surface energies of i) fluid-fluid interfaces and ii) fluid-solid interfaces.