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SUMMARY:MechE Colloquium: Using drops to structure materials
DTSTART:20180501T121500
DTEND:20180501T131500
DTSTAMP:20260406T174706Z
UID:f359b6bea7fa8fc6a9f3eb3887d736cfb863de9a5a69a39129c12504
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Esther Amstad\, Soft Materials Laboratory\, EPFL School 
 of Engineering\, Institute of Materials\nMy group aims at fabricating soft
  materials whose mechanical properties closely resemble those of natural c
 ounterparts. To achieve this goal\, we are developing microfluidic process
 es to control the micrometer-length scale structure and local composition 
 of soft materials.\n\nAbstract:\nNature produces materials that exhibit ex
 ceptional mechanical properties. For example\, the mussel byssus is a hydr
 ogel-based tissue with a combination of strength and toughness that remain
 s unmatched by manmade hydrogel-based counterparts. A clear difference bet
 ween natural and manmade hydrogels is their structure: Natural hydrogels p
 ossess a well-defined\, often hierarchical structure whereas manmade hydro
 gels are typically composed of randomly aligned polymers. These difference
 s in structure might in parts be related to the different processing route
 s: While nature often uses drops to store reagents and release them at wel
 l-defined locations\, we most frequently produce bio-mimetic materials by 
 mixing reagents in bulk. Inspired by nature\, my group is developing drop-
 based processes that offer superior control over the micrometer-scale stru
 cture of materials\, thereby offering new possibilities to tune their mech
 anical properties. In my talk\, I will present examples of the use of emul
 sion drops to produce capsules with thin shells and tuneable mechanical pr
 operties and their assembly into more macroscopic granular hydrogels with 
 well-defined structures and adjustable mechanical properties.\n\nBio:\nEst
 her Amstad studied material science at ETH in Zurich where she also carrie
 d out her Ph.D. thesis under the supervision of Marcus Textor (2010). As a
  Postdoctoral fellow\, she joined the experimental soft condensed matter g
 roup of David A. Weitz at Harvard University (2011-2014) where she develop
 ed new microfluidic drop makers and used these drops to produce capsules w
 ith tunable permeability. Since June 2014\, she heads the Soft Materials L
 aboratory (SMAL) at the institute of materials at EPFL as a tenure track a
 ssistant professor.
LOCATION:MED 0 1418 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==MED%200%201418
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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