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- Fletcher Jones II Professor
Highest Degree
- Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, 1980
Major Honors and Awards
- National Academy of Engineering
- Cox Medal for the Advancement of Undergraduate Research (Stanford)
- Bingham Medal of the Society of Rheology
- Fellow of the American Physical Society
Research Area
Complex Fluids and Complex Fluid Interfaces
Orientation Dynamics in Complex Liquids
The processing of polymeric and other complex materials alters their microstructure through orientation and deformation of their constitutive elements. In the case of polymeric liquids, it is of interest to obtain in situ measurements of segmental orientation and optical methods have proven to be an excellent means of acquiring this information. Research in our laboratory has resulted in a number of techniques in optical rheometry ranging from high-speed polarimetry (birefringence and dichroism), small angle light scattering, and Raman scattering. We are presently developing single molecule methods for polymer rheology. This work, which is carried out in collaboration with Professors Waymouth and Moerner of Chemistry, involves the creation of new polymer molecules incorporating bright chromophores that can be visualized using single molecule spectroscopic tools. These techniques are aimed at revealing the dynamics of branched polymers, but placing the chromophores directly at branch points, and the problem of wall slip in polymer melts.
Interfacial Dynamics and Rheology
There are numerous processes encountered in nature and industry where the deformation of fluid-fluid interfaces is of central importance. Examples from nature include deformation of the red blood cell in small capillaries and cell division. Industrial applications include the processing of emulsions and foams, and the atomization of droplets in ink-jet printing. In our laboratory, fundamental research is in progress to understand the orientation and deformation of monolayers at the molecular level. These experiments employ state of the art optical methods such as polarization modulated dichroism, fluorescence microscopy, and Brewster angle microscopy to obtain in situ measurements of polymer films and small molecule amphiphile monolayers subject to flow. Langmuir troughs are used as the experimental platform so that the thermodynamic state of the monolayers can be systematically controlled. For the first time, well characterized, homogeneous surface flows have been developed, and real time measurements of molecular and microdomain orientation have been obtained. These microstructural experiments are complemented by measurements of the macroscopic, mechanical properties of the films.
Representative Publications
- Gerald G. Fuller, Optical Rheometry of Complex Fluids, Oxford University Press, New York , 1995.
- Carlton F. Brooks, Gerald G. Fuller, Curtis W. Frank, and Channing R. Robertson, “An Interfacial Stress Rheometer To Study Rheological Transitions in Monolayers at the Air-Water Interface Langmuir”, 15(#7) (1999) 2450-2459.
- Cicuta, P., Stancik, E. J., and Fuller, G. G., “Shearing or compressing a soft glass in 2D: Time-concentration superposition”, Phys. Rev. Lett., 90 (2003) 236101.
- Stancik, EJ; Fuller, GG, “Connect the drops: Using solids as adhesives for liquids”, Langmuir, 20 (2004) 4805-4808.
- Sonia Melle, Mauricio Lask, and Gerald G. Fuller, “Pickering Emulsions with Controllable Stability”, Langmuir, (2005).
Current Students
Ph.D. Students—Undergraduate Institution
- Grant Gavranovic—Texas A & M University
- An Goffin—University of Leuven, Belgium
- Martin Widenbrant—KTH—Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
Postdoctoral Fellows—Doctoral Institution
- Cecile Monteux—University of Lyon, France
- Hui Xu—Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China
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Last Modified: December 4 2007 08:18:40 AM |
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