Self-organization on the run: examples of dynamically controlled colloidal assembly
James Gilchrist, Professor, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

Zoom Link: https://lehigh.zoom.us/j/97504643424

Abstract:
Controlling 3D and/or dynamic properties of materials has been the dream of researchers for advanced optically, thermally, electronically, chemically, and mechanically responsive materials – something nature has mastered through a balance of thermodynamics, kinetics, forces, and scales in many systems.  Two areas of directed assembly we are investigating will be discussed, the first balancing capillary forces, electrostatic interactions, and excluded volume to fabricate well-ordered structures in a process that has been scaled up to create pilot-scale quantities of materials.  The second is a recent, exploratory area of our research, utilizing this self-assembly method to synthesize magnetically-responsive Janus particles and our first excursions into optically and mechanically dynamic magneto-responsive materials. 

Biography:
James Gilchrist is a Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Polymer Science and Engineering at Lehigh University.  Gilchrist directs the Laboratory for Particle Mixing and Self-Organization with research interests spanning particle technology, fluid mechanics, rheology, and interfacial science applied to problems in mixing, suspension rheology and transport, coatings, microfluidics, bioMEMS, and self-assembly.  He received his degrees in chemical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis (BS) and Northwestern University (PhD). Prior to joining the faculty of Lehigh University in 2004, he was a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at University of Illinois. Dr. Gilchrist served as a visiting professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology for the 2011-2012 academic year, and a Visiting Professorial Fellow at University of New South Wales in 2016.