The
Chemical
Engineering
Department
is
hosting
a
special
graduate
seminar
about Multiscale
Designs
via
Interfacial
Assembly:
All-liquid
Soft
Materials
and
Ultra-Flyweight
Aerogel.
Abstract:
Unlocking the full potential of multiphase soft materials can be facilitated by engineering their structures. This is a guiding principle of my recent efforts, which I will introduce in relation to the development of a new class of all-liquid soft materials, produced following controlled structuring, from the nano- to the macro-scales. This was achieved by a co-assembly process that involved nanomaterials and surfactants adsorbed at the oil/water (O/W) interface. These materials can be described as multiphase systems with continuous, multilayer, interpenetrated, and tubular Janus shapes. The process uses a microfluidic approach that enables interfacial complexation of two-phase systems via “liquid streaming” (LS). I demonstrate LS as a general pathway to design multifunctional soft materials with given hierarchical order and morphology, conveniently controlled by the nature of the oil phase and the parameters used for the extrusion of the system, including nozzle diameter, injection pressure, and print-head speed. The as-obtained systems via LS are shown to be readily converted into worm-like (ultra-flyweight) aerogels (WUFAs) with tunable multiscale porosities (micro- and macro-scaled). I show that a wide range of nanoscale building blocks, from synthetic to sustainable nanomaterials derived from renewable sources, can be processed by LS for the assembly of a wide range of multifunctional systems. I will introduce some applications for the devised soft materials, ranging from all-liquid electronics and microfluidic devices, as well as ultralight printed conductive circuits and electromagnetic interference shields for the WUFAs. Overall, the introduced platform for engineering sustainable soft materials and solid constructs opens new horizons toward advanced functions and materials.