David Morse

David Morse
Professor | Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
University of Minnesota

Title: Nonlinear Dynamics of Surfactant Adsorption from a Micellar Solution

Abstract: Surfactants that adsorb strongly to fluid surfaces and interfaces often also self-assemble into micelles. In equilibrium, micellar aggregates appear only when the surfactant concentration exceeds a critical micelle concentration (CMC). The dynamics of adsorption of individual surfactant molecules from a solution of a single surfactant species with a concentration below the CMC is simple, and well understood.  The dynamics of adsorption from a micellar solution has been much less heavily studied, either theoretically or experimentally, and is much less well understood.  I will discuss a model of adsorption from a micellar solution to a rapidly created, initially bare surface, and consider how this transport problem is affected by the creation of a region near the interface in which the local concentration temporarily drops well below the CMC. I will also discuss analysis of experimental measurements of the dynamic interfacial tension of solutions of a component of lung surfactant (Lyso-PC) using a capillary pressure microtensiometer that generates a fresh interface by rapidly creating of an air bubble at the end of a capillary immersed in surfactant solution.

Bio: David Morse is a professor in the department of chemical engineering and materials science at the University of Minnesota. He received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991, and held postdoctoral positions at the Exxon (now ExxonMobil) corporate research laboratory and at the University of California, Santa Barbara before moving to Minnesota.  His research focuses on the statistical mechanics of complex fluids.