Soft matter in motion: from actin to active emulsions

Tsang, Chi Hang Boyce

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/92905 Copy

Description

Title

Soft matter in motion: from actin to active emulsions

Author(s)

Tsang, Chi Hang Boyce

Issue Date

2016-06-28

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Granick, Steve

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Schweizer, Kenneth S.

Committee Member(s)

• Gruebele, Martin
• Hubler, Albert

Department of Study

Physics

Discipline

Physics

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Soft material
• microscopy
• image processing

Abstract

Using microscope as a discovery tool, we surveyed a range of soft material systems, including filamentous actin, liquid crystal droplet and block copolymer to study their dynamics under equilibrium and non-equilibrium conditions. By following the motion of filamentous actin under a fluorescence microscope, we directly observed a width-varying confinement tube in an entangled solution and its implication on the dynamics of polymers. We then considered the correlation between motions of different filamentous actin to study how the unique structure actin network led to such correlation. On the other hand, liquid crystal droplets under concentrated surfactant solution were observed to slowly solubilize into an aqueous phase. During this time, the oscillatory aggregation was tracked and we studied the mechanism of this self-oscillation. On a smaller scale, communication could be observed among individual droplets using polarized light microscopy. Lastly, we studied the photosensitivity of an azobenzene-funcationalized triblock copolymer with a customized microscope with blue and ultraviolet light illumination.

Graduation Semester

2016-08

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/92905

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2016 Boyce Tsang

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