IMX Seminar Series - Soft Solids

Many materials we eat, spread, squeeze, or 3D print are gels — soft, amorphous solids whose solid component is constituted by a network of self-assembled particles or agglomerated smaller units (proteins, polymers or other particulates). The understanding of the emergence of rigidity and of the role of stress localization in the mechanics of this type of gels has just started, but it is clearly key to designing and expanding their performances and functions. I will discuss new insight into the fundamental physics that control rigidity, elasticity and rheology of soft particulate gels. Mechanical heterogeneities, often not recognizable from structures and morphologies, translate into stress and strain localization when the material is deformed or under load. The outstanding questions are whether there exist organizing principles in the gel microstructures that can encompass different compositions and gelation processes and whether it is possible to identify common underlying mechanisms in the rheological response.