Patten Seminar: S. Lisa Biswal

Speaker: S. Lisa Biswal, William M. McCardell Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Rice University, Houston, Texas Seminar: Programmable Colloidal Assemblies: Designing Dynamic Matter with Magnetic Fields Hosts: Rob Davis and Ankur Gupta Abstract Colloidal particles provide a versatile model system for understanding how interactions, structure, and dynamics produce material behavior. More importantly, when their interactions can be controlled in real time, colloids can serve as reconfigurable building blocks for adaptive materials and microscale devices. My group uses time-varying magnetic fields to direct the assembly and motion of superparamagnetic colloids, creating structures whose morphology, mechanics, and function can be dynamically programmed. I will first describe how rotating magnetic fields drive colloidal particles into nonequilibrium states with collective behavior reminiscent of molecular fluids. These systems exhibit dynamic c...