(6ck) Understanding and Exploiting the Tunability of Long-Range Electrostatic Interactions in Soft Materials

My research interests lie in understanding the tunability of long-range interactions for controlling soft matter behaviors by multiscale computational simulations. The electrostatic interactions are sensitive to various tuning parameters including solvent permittivity, electrolyte valence, size and concentration, and interfaces, and provide tunability for the properties of soft materials. Despite long-term usage of electrostatics in controlling the soft matter properties, such as buffer system in biology and the self-assembly of metamaterials, the understanding of electrostatics interactions is still limited. Here we discuss about researches on the effects of surface polarization on the electrostatic interactions between ion-containing emulsions, the effects of electrolyte concentration on the electrostatic interactions between colloids, and the effects of solvent permittivity on the aggregation of macrocycles. The researches shed light on why classical electrostatic theories such as the Debye–Hückel theory and even the non-linear Poisson Boltzmann theory break down in recent electrostatic mediated experiments. The poster will then proceed to the prospective of tunability of general long-range interactions in manipulating soft matter properties.

Teaching Interests:

1. Classical and statistical thermodynamics

2. Kinetics of materials

3. Electrostatics

4. Nanoscale heat transfer

5. Transport phenomena

6. Condensed matter physics