New Vistas in Dispersion Science and Engineering

Lyman Handy Colloquium SeriesPresentsDarsh WasanProfessor, Dept. of Chemical Engineering Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois 60616Abstract:
Colloidal suspensions are used in a variety of technological contexts. For example, their spreading and adhesion behavior on solid surfaces can yield materials with desirable structural and optical properties. The structure and stability of colloidal dispersions depend highly on the interaction forces between colloidal particles and the confining geometries. This is especially the case in a concentrated colloidal dispersion when particles are more likely to come in close contact with one another and become more ordered in the confines of their restricted environment. In recent years, due to the advent of new instrumentation for measuring interaction forces in colloidal suspensions, novel forces, such as the structural force arising from the energy barrier caused by particle microstructuring and the attractive depletion force caused by the excluded volume effect, have been characterized. This lecture will highlight the role of structural forces in stabilizing dispersions and especially point out their importance in a variety of technological contexts, such as particle sedimentation, wetting, spreading and adhesion of such systems on solid surfaces and nanostructured material synthetics.Darsh T. Wasan is the Motorola Chair Professor of Chemical Engineering and Vice President for International Affairs at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT).

Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 122

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Petra Pearce Sapir