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SUMMARY:IMX Seminar Series - Instabilities and flow-induced structures in 
 lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals
DTSTART:20220509T131500
DTEND:20220509T141500
DTSTAMP:20260510T042412Z
UID:598e2ee644a5ae71c9263939fbfb9b86d3ff231eb8a5b7bfed968a92
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Irmgard Bischofberger\, MIT USA\nLyotropic chromonic liq
 uid crystals in the nematic phase are anisotropic fluids. We exploit this 
 intrinsic anisotropy to probe growth morphology transitions that occur in 
 the viscous-fingering instability upon the displacement of the liquid crys
 tal by a less-viscous Newtonian liquid. In isotropic systems\, this instab
 ility produces complex patterns that are characterized by repeated branchi
 ng of the evolving structure\, which leads to the common morphologies of f
 ractal or dense-branching growth. In anisotropic systems\, by contrast\, t
 he growth morphology changes to dendritic growth characterized by stable n
 eedle-like structures. We show that the morphology transition coincides wi
 th the onset of shear-alignment at high shear rates\, where the shear forc
 es become dominant over the elastic forces from the nematogenic potential.
  Below this critical shear rate\, the lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal e
 xhibits a tumbling behavior that leads to the formation of novel types of 
 defects and flow structures\, including the surprising emergence of chiral
  domains despite the achiral nature of the material.\nBio: Irmgard Bischo
 fberger is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineer
 ing at MIT. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in Physics from the University o
 f Fribourg (Switzerland) and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University o
 f Chicago. Irmgard is an experimentalist working in the fields of fluid dy
 namics and soft condensed matter. Her research interests include the spont
 aneous pattern formation from fluid instabilities and drying processes and
  non-equilibrium phenomena in soft gels. Irmgard is passionate about commu
 nicating science to a diverse audience and has a longstanding ‘Science a
 nd Arts’ collaboration with artists and musicians.
LOCATION:https://epfl.zoom.us/j/68532296336?pwd=UXBrN1RBWHVFQjVjSko2NDF3S3
 Awdz09
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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