The UCL-Imperial CDT in Advanced Characterisation of Materials is now accepting applications. You can apply for a project in the UCL Optical Tweezers Group in collaboration with Valeria Garbin's Group in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial on Nanomechanical Characterisation of Soft Materials.
Project abstract:
The project objective is to develop a suite of analytical techniques, including optical tweezers and microfluidics, for characterising the (nano)mechanical properties of ‘soft’ materials such as liposomes or biomembranes. The principal aims of this project are:
(i) to study the mechanical properties of biomimetic vesicles undergoing extreme deformations as a result of an applied external stress, e.g. optical, acoustic, or fluid shear forces;
(ii) to study phase separation and rupture in artificial vesicles under external forcing;
(iii) to use the result of the above studies to engineer membrane materials with properties optimised for applications including controlled drug release and microreactors.
During the project the student will acquire skills in microfluidics, microdevice fabrication, optics, modelling (including light scattering and transport phenomena), image analysis, and (micro)rheology.
Contact Phil Jones or Valeria Garbin for details
