University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Seeing the unseen dynamics in soft matter

Yu, Changqian

Content Files
YU-DISSERTATION-2015.pdf

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/88256

Description

Title
Seeing the unseen dynamics in soft matter
Author(s)
Yu, Changqian
Issue Date
2015-06-30
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Granick, Steve
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Averback, Robert
Committee Member(s)
  • Kilian, Kristopher A.
  • Chen, Qian
Department of Study
Materials Science & Engineerng
Discipline
Materials Science & Engr
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Date of Ingest
2015-09-29T21:02:59Z
Keyword(s)
  • soft matter
  • dynamics
  • imaging
Abstract
The theme of this thesis concerns the fundamental questions in soft matter, in particular, the dynamics of vesicle membranes, interfacial polymers, colloidal particles. Optical imaging was applied three distinct systems to reveal the underlying physical processes that were hindered by other prior indirect measurements. First, mechanical responses of both polymer and lipid vesicles were investigated by watching their shape transformations under environmental variations, mostly under osmotic shocks, which emitted new prospects on membrane elasticity, instability and kinetics. Furthermore, with statistical analysis of particle and pattern tracking, three classical questions in polymer physics regarding polymer-surface interactions were revisited: adsorption, surface diffusion, and dewetting. The final remark of this thesis presented inter-surface interaction induced by binary liquid mixture near the demixing temperature. Both colloidal assembly and physical chemistry of binary liquid were examined through Janus particle. All these studies followed the same spirit of using direct imaging to declare the unseen dynamical processes in soft matter.
Graduation Semester
2015-8
Type of Resource
text
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/88256
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2015 Changqian Yu

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Graduate Dissertations and Theses at Illinois PRIMARY
Graduate Theses and Dissertations at Illinois
Dissertations and Theses - Materials Science and Engineering