Seeing the unseen dynamics in soft matter

Yu, Changqian

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/88256 Copy

Description

Title

Seeing the unseen dynamics in soft matter

Author(s)

Yu, Changqian

Issue Date

2015-06-30

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Granick, Steve

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Averback, Robert

Committee Member(s)

• Kilian, Kristopher A.
• Chen, Qian

Department of Study

Materials Science & Engineerng

Discipline

Materials Science & Engr

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• soft matter
• dynamics
• imaging

Abstract

The theme of this thesis concerns the fundamental questions in soft matter, in particular, the dynamics of vesicle membranes, interfacial polymers, colloidal particles. Optical imaging was applied three distinct systems to reveal the underlying physical processes that were hindered by other prior indirect measurements. First, mechanical responses of both polymer and lipid vesicles were investigated by watching their shape transformations under environmental variations, mostly under osmotic shocks, which emitted new prospects on membrane elasticity, instability and kinetics. Furthermore, with statistical analysis of particle and pattern tracking, three classical questions in polymer physics regarding polymer-surface interactions were revisited: adsorption, surface diffusion, and dewetting. The final remark of this thesis presented inter-surface interaction induced by binary liquid mixture near the demixing temperature. Both colloidal assembly and physical chemistry of binary liquid were examined through Janus particle. All these studies followed the same spirit of using direct imaging to declare the unseen dynamical processes in soft matter.

Graduation Semester

2015-8

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/88256

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2015 Changqian Yu

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