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Highlights

Research overview

Rheology

Rheology is the science of flow and deformation of matter

Processing

Processing here refers essentially to non-Newtonian fluid mechanics applied to compounding and shaping of soft matter into products.

Soft Matter

We use here Soft Matter as a generic term that includes the diverse materials we are working with. Soft Matter is a sub-category of condensed matter and consists of materials that are easily deformed by external fields. Examples of soft matter include polymers, gels, colloids, emulsions, liquid crystals, surfactants, foams etc. (see also Pierre-Gilles de Gennes ‘Soft Matter’, Nobel Lecture December 9, 1991).

Highlights

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Research overview

Rheology is unique among analytical techniques in materials science because it can probe material structure in ‘out-of-equilibrium’ states, i.e. flow induced. This takes rheology as analytical technique towards processing through flow and morphological control therewith. The processing of soft matter into products typically involves rheologically complex fluids in complex flow configurations. Thus, understanding field-matter interactions in relation to fundamental rheological properties is essential for obtaining products with favorable performance through processing.

Four pillars

Our research is based around four closely-relate main pillars: (i) complex fluid flows, (ii) field-matter interaction in nanostructured fluids, (iii) multifunctional properties in soft matter systems and (iv) advanced rheometry.

Overview

  • Advanced characterization methods, method development - hyphenated rheological techniques: rheo-SAXS, rheo-DES focused on nonlinear material characterization and , e.g. rheo-optics, rheo-SAXS, rheo-DES mainly applied to nanocellulose and graphene suspensions, polymer nanocomposites, hydrogels, adhesives and biomaterials (biofilms, tissues).
  • Field-matter interactions for mateiral sctructuring* - focused on the process structuring of ~polymer nanocomposites based on graphene and other high aspect ratio fillers for enhanced antibacterial, electrical, thermal, mechanical, gas-barrier etc. properties.
  • Dynamics of complex fluids for processing applications - focused on modeling (CFD), processing flow and compositional optimization of high filler content bicomposites, flow-assisted structuring of nanocrystalline cellulose dispersions and thixotropic yield stress fluids in general.

In other words

The common theme throught our research is that all what we do is generally centered around scientific and industrial challenges where rheology is one of the key aspects. Otherwise, our focus activities are relatively broad:

Engineering: Method develpment, multifunctional properties, flow dynamics and pattern formation, nanotechnology, polymer technology, porcessing component design, polymer and solution processing, coating

Characterization: shear and extensional rheometry, inline rheometry, microscopy (optical,SEM,TEM), thermo-mechanical properties, dielectric spectroscopy. We specialize on hyphenated rheological techniques, such as rheology combined with small-angle X-ray scattering (rheo-SAXS), with polarized light imaging (PLI or SIPLI), dielectric spectroscopy (DES)

Materials: graphene, nanocellulose, polymer solutions and melts, nanocomposites, biocomposites, adhesives, suspensions, gels, hydrogels

Processing: extrusion, bioprinting, 3D-printing (polymers), coating, magnetic fields

Apllications: antibacterial materials, thermo-electric properties, processability, multifunctional materials